


Hands Up

by SmolNerd



Category: Halo (Video Games) & Related Fandoms, 방탄소년단 | Bangtan Boys | BTS
Genre: Addiction, Almost Caught, Conflict, Conflict Resolution, Crash Landing, Did I mention Jikook, Emotional Baggage, Emotions, Feelings, Gen, Halo: Combat Evolved, Help, I'm Bad At Tagging, I'm Sorry, Intense, Internal Conflict, Jeon Jungkook Is Bad at Feelings, Master Chief to the Rescue, More sope, Namjin is my world, New Friends, OT7, Oh My God, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pain, Park Jimin is So Done, Pillar of Autumn, Please Don't Hate Me, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Self-Blame, Shooting, Sleeping Drug, Sope, Sope has issues, Still bad at tagging, Suspense, Tags Are Hard, Tags May Change, The Flood - Freeform, There's A Tag For That, Trauma, Triggers, What Have I Done, Where the hell are we, Why Did I Write This?, Zombies?, argument, diversity, halo flood, impending doom, jikook - Freeform, jikook has issues, modafinil, more Jikook, my heart hurts, namjin - Freeform, what on earth is wrong with suga, what?, whoo boy, yoongi's past
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-30
Updated: 2017-11-16
Packaged: 2019-01-26 20:09:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 20,136
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12565228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SmolNerd/pseuds/SmolNerd
Summary: Fireteam Bangtan is caught on an escape pod fleeing the Pillar of Autumn as it crashes into Halo. When their mission is to find a weapons cache in unfamiliar territory, they stumble onto an enemy they've never fought before.겨눠 총! 조준! 발사!





	1. Crash Landing

### Prologue

Perfect silence. The _Pillar of Autumn_ moved at a quasi-urgent speed towards the structure ahead, shadowed by the gas giant, the Threshold.  
The structure was ring like, and it seemed like a beacon of safety to Captain Keyes. Perhaps it is inhabited? _Cortana wouldn’t have brought us here if she didn’t know we’d have a way out._  
His illusion was shattered by her answer to his demand.  
“Cortana, all I want to know is, did we lose them?”  
“I think we both know the answer to that.” Her tone was sharp, something he was used to from her, but it was still jarring in this situation.  
He groaned, as if trying to deny how they had managed to be followed. “We made a blind jump. How did they-”  
“The Covenant ships have always been faster. As for tracking us all the way from Reach, at lightspeed, my maneuvering options were limited.”  
Cortana then proceeded to tell him that the fleet was waiting for them on the other side of the Threshold, and how in about ninety seconds the battleships would make their attack.  
The Captain knew he had no other choice. He hated that it had to come to this, but everybody in the UNSC knew that the Covenant was vicious and would stop at nothing to obliterate their prey. In this case, it just happened to be The _Pillar of Autumn _and everybody on board._  
He gave the order with an eager attitude. God knew he didn’t want to do this, but if they were going to go down, it was definitely not going to be without one hell of a fight.  
\---_

###  __Chapter 1: Crash Landing_ _

____

__

__Kim Namjoon looked over his unit while they waited in the silence after the Covenant began to board the Pillar of Autumn. Seven in total, including himself, took cover by a staircase, as the Covenant armies entered the ship.  
As a star pupil of the Academy, but also a son of high-ranking parents, upon his graduation, Namjoon was immediately thrust into the stressful job of a sergeant. Yet this was no regret of his. He was naturally suited to the role, and the chance to meet his unit as a sergeant was one of the only things that kept him going.  
    Namjoon locked eyes with his second-in-command, Kim Seokjin. Affectionately called Jin by the rest of the team, he was also the oldest. Namjoon had chosen him as second due to the mere fact that Jin was in fact the next runner-up to be Sergeant, mainly because of his age. It was later discovered that they did, in fact, work well together so Namjoon did not regret his choice.  
    Jin nodded in return and looked towards Min Yoongi and Jung Hoseok. They were pressed tightly together, both looking towards the ground.  
    Yoongi called himself Suga when he entered the Academy. Nobody knew why. He changed his story every time someone asked. All anyone knew is how well he grew during his time at the Academy, and how he had taken to Jung Hoseok- otherwise known as J-Hope on the team.  
    Namjoon smiled when he thought of J-Hope’s success as a soldier. Once a screaming, nervous mess, he had grown into one of the most dedicated fighters that Namjoon had ever known. Their similarly high-ranking parents was the thing that had bound them as friends at the Academy… which was why J-Hope was even a soldier at all. If it hadn’t been for his parents, Hoseok would have been a musician on Earth with hardly any knowledge of the battles waged in space for the freedom of humanity.  
Jin’s attention was drawn to Kim Taehyung, who sat in between him and Namjoon. Taehyung was the second youngest, and his eyes were fixed firmly ahead, as if he were standing at attention. Jin’s hand reached over and briefly gripped his shoulder. Taehyung- also called V- briefly looked up but saw scarcely any comfort in Jin’s gaze.  
On the farthest side, Namjoon saw Park Jimin- who was only just two months older than V- seeming to hang on for dear life to their youngest member, Jeon Jungkook. The two of them were inseparable. Namjoon had tried many times to get them to operate their own solo missions or to work solely with the others, but somehow, they _always_ found a way to get around that. At this point the rest of the team had given up on trying to get them to separate a little.  
None of them had truly expected this to happen. They all knew of the ongoing struggle between the Covenant and mankind, but to lose Reach, their home, was utterly devastating.  
Well, if Namjoon were to be honest with himself and the others, he had indeed seen it coming. Reach was one of their biggest strongholds, and the Covenant stopped at nothing to ensure the destruction of mankind. It was only natural for them to seek to glass the planet.  
But for the others, it was not as easy to accept. The past month had been a nightmare, and most of them had spent it in denial, while the Covenant ceaselessly attacked their world. The only thing that Namjoon was grateful for was that they were all still there despite the hell that had threatened them longer than ever.  
Suddenly, the silence broke with a growl of an Elite (or Sangheili fighter). Namjoon’s already heightened senses seemed to grow sharper and he turned towards the sound.  
The others already had their weapons ready and pointed at the doorway.  
“Fire at will!”  
    Nobody had to be ordered twice. A roar of anger came from the door, where the Elite had taken cover.  
    Namjoon’s ears pricked while he held up his hand to stop. A second snarling voice could be heard… and then a third.  
    _Damn._ They were dead now for sure. He looked at his unit when the silence returned briefly.  
    “Ammo check.” His voice was as serious as they had ever heard it.  
    “We’re both at half,” Jungkook reported for both himself and Jimin. At any other occasion, Namjoon would have rolled his eyes. Right now, they were staring death in the face.  
    “Half,” came the chorus of the others.  
    Namjoon checked his own weapon. “Half,” he confirmed, closing it again.  
    “I have some extra clips,” V suddenly volunteered.  
    The question rang in Namjoon’s head: _How the hell did he manage get extra clips?_ Never mind.  
    Shaking his head, he looked straight at each soldier. “If you run out, ask V for a clip. Only shoot if you see any part of an Elite beast.”  
    After the chorus of nods and “yes sirs”, Namjoon turned back to watch the doorway. The Elites were clearly devising a plan of attack. He could feel the hair on his arms stand up as the quiet growling voices rung in his ears. The intelligence of the Elites was what made them so dangerous, arguably more than the Brutes, in Namjoon’s opinion. Elites could think and kill their enemy swiftly and efficiently, while Brutes only smashed everything in their path.  
    In a split second, the quiet broke again and a shot of plasma flew right past Jimin’s ear, bursting on the staircase behind him. In retaliation, a flurry of shots came from Jungkook’s rifle, echoed by the other’s weapons each firing at any visible alien body part.  
    Just as before, Namjoon’s senses went into overdrive. The sweat dripping down his neck, the endless shots of his unit pounding against his already damaged eardrums, the heat coming from the shots going off around him. His vision focused towards the doorway. Squeezing the trigger caused time to slow down. Each shot took an eternity to leave the rifle.  
    In the end, they managed to kill only one Elite and two Grunts which had come out of nowhere, even with V’s extra clips. A hoarse cackle emerged from the doorway when clicks were heard from all seven members of the unit.  
    _This is it. We’re all dead now._  
    Namjoon’s eyes swept across the unit once more. Jin was holding on to a terrified V, J-Hope and Suga were trying to wake themselves from a nightmare, and Jimin and Jungkook were tightly grasping hands behind their cover.  
    But just as their doom was sealed with the entrance of five Grunts and two Elites, a shot rang out through the air, cutting cleanly through the skull of the leading Elite.  
    Namjoon’s heart jumped into his throat. _It can’t be!_ But before he could make a single remark, a massive form rushed into the room, killing the remaining Covenant fighters with a few clear shots. When the remaining Covenant had been killed, Namjoon finally got a good look at the stranger… who he soon recognized.  
    As the stranger stood at seven feet and two inches, Namjoon felt smaller than usual, even though he had fought his fair share of battles against enemies much bigger than himself.  
    “Master Chief…” Jungkook’s awed whisper echoed in Namjoon’s mind. They had all seen the bio-chemically advanced Spartans many times before, but to the Marines, this was a legend coming to life before their eyes.  
    “Sir! We owe you our lives.” Namjoon offered.  
    “There aren’t many survivors left on the ship. Your only option is an escape pod to the ring.”  
    Namjoon blinked upon hearing Master Chief’s voice. It was deep and rough, but it held a command that even he could not find in himself to muster.  
    “We’ll follow you. We have your back. Let’s move out!”  
    Chief nodded and cocked his weapon, leading the team out the doorway and into the unknown fate that awaited them. 

\---

They were stuck. Jungkook couldn’t remember the last time they’d had such an intense battle… Well, except for the time Jimin almost died at the hands of a Brute which almost killed Jungkook by extension because of the rage that enveloped him immediately.  
    That was also the time Namjoon gave him the cold shoulder for almost three days afterward. But Jungkook regretted nothing. When it came to any of the boys, he would gladly give his life for them. (Especially Jimin, but he wouldn’t admit that… out loud at least.)  
    Pressed closely against both the wall and Jimin, he could only hear gunfire going off around him. But he was in no position to take a shot himself. His fingers twitched with the nerves of being in battle with no way to shoot an enemy. He could see Namjoon on the front end of the line, holding his hand up to stop them from going. He could see their leader never taking his eyes off of Master Chief.  
    Most Marines wanted to be him. Not Jungkook. He had heard of the pain it took to become a seasoned Spartan. And most Marines had already experienced enough while becoming who they were. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to take any more than what he’d already gone through.  
    Immediately upon seeing Namjoon’s gesture to keep moving, he gripped his gun tightly and followed Jimin, keeping his head low. With relief he realized that they had reached the armory.  
    “You have one minute. Grab what you can,” Master Chief ordered while barring the door. Jungkook hadn’t even noticed him come in behind them. But he did as he was commanded, stuffing as many clips into his gear as he possibly could without a second thought.  
    In a flash the team was ready again and they followed Master Chief out of the armory, this time heading towards the escape pods. They managed to kill some Grunts and Elites along the way, doing their best not to waste any ammunition for the journey ahead.  
    Jungkook was surprised at the amount of time it took them to reach the lifepod despite the unusually savage fire going on around them. Even when the Covenant fought lazily they killed many. But this was a bloodbath. Jungkook said a silent thank you to the powers above for sparing his unit as he entered the escape pod and found Jimin.  
    There were already two people inside the life pod, Jungkook noticed. One was a frightened man named Iseul and the other was a tough woman in the pilot’s seat named Hana. He strapped himself in and hoped that Iseul’s evident fear wouldn’t rub off on them now. The heat of battle was keeping him from thinking about his current situation.  
    While Jungkook and the others were relatively unaffected, J-Hope’s fear seemed to have been reawakened by Iseul’s mere presence. He began to whimper, half-heartedly trying not to be heard by his team.  
    Chief was the last one to get in. “Punch it,” he ordered coolly, grabbing onto the gear overhead.  
    “Aye aye, sir,” answered Hana, beginning to maneuver out of the Autumn, into the chaotic space that surrounded them, as fast as physically possible. “We’re disengaged, going for minimum safe distance,” she added, as soon as they were falling towards the ring.  
    “We’re gonna make it, aren’t we, sir? I don’t wanna die out here!” Iseul screamed, causing J-Hope to let out a distressed sound. Suga’s shush was heard immediately after.  
    “Look!” A female voice which Jungkook didn’t recognize exclaimed. Thinking back, he realized that he had been hearing it all along, he just hadn’t cared about its existence. It was Master Chief’s Artificial Intelligence, Cortana. She had been speaking to the Chief but Jungkook frankly didn’t care what she had to say.  
Through the viewport, the mentioned ‘ring’ could be seen. Craning his neck while trying to avoid feeling the turbulent shake of falling, Jungkook sucked in a breath at the new sight.  
It was massive. Bigger than a small moon, but also somehow stable in its relative thinness. The inside of the ring was covered in earthlike land of all sorts. Jungkook’s eyes were drawn to its lakes as he briefly saw visions of growing up with his brother. But there were also mountains and deserts, filled with unfamiliar sights and territory.  
Suddenly Jungkook found himself gripping Jimin’s hand and shaking his head. _This can’t be real. I’m in some weird nightmare and I want to wake up!_  
But it was real. He could feel his stomach turn into a knot as they picked up speed, Jimin’s hand tighten around his with an inhuman strength, while his own other hand forgot how to hold things and was shaking almost violently. J-Hope began to scream for real and Jungkook was sure he’d lose it too.  
Once the intensity of the quaking had become unbearable, Jungkook tried to scream but nothing came out. He looked over at Jimin who met his eyes with a poor attempt at a smile. Jimin looked like it was taking everything he had not to disintegrate into a pile of goo, lips pressed tightly together so as to not lose his insides.  
Iseul by now had fainted, but too late because at this point J-Hope couldn’t even scream anymore. He too was holding hands with Suga who was closing his eyes and muttering unintelligibly.  
Like a family, Jin, V, and Namjoon were also gripping each other tightly. Jin was staring straight up, wishing he could fly straight out of the life pod. V’s head was drooping down and Jungkook wasn’t sure if he had fainted. Namjoon was staring at a point on the wall stone-faced, despite the chaos going on around him.  
“Sure you wouldn’t rather take a seat?” Cortana’s voice cried from within Chief’s helmet.  
“We’ll be fine,” Chief replied, not a hint of panic in his voice as he braced himself on the ship and got ready for impact.  
Hana was shouting things. Jungkook couldn’t understand what she was saying. He didn’t want to. He was going to disintegrate into dust: why would Hana’s words matter?  
_I love you mom, dad, hyung._  
Then everything went white.  
\--- 

__Min Yoongi thought he had died.  
Not that he minded, that way he could catch up on an entire missed lifetime of sleep, not to mention finally get a little bit of peace from the constant noise of gunfire and death.  
There was, however, one problem.  
“Hoseok?”  
It didn’t come out the way he had intended. Instead, it was hoarse and raspy, close to a whisper.  
“Hoseok?” he tried again.  
He heard Namjoon instead.  
“Suga!”  
Everything hurt, but Namjoon was there with him… wherever that was.  
“Namjoon!” his voice came stronger. “Are we dead?”  
“No.”  
_Dammit_ , he thought, but then corrected himself. _I don’t want the others to die, so I hope we’re not dead._  
“Have you seen Hoseok?”  
“I’ve only heard you.”  
Suga sighed. “I’ll try to get you out. Give me a moment.”  
As soon as he started to make an effort to get out of the mess of the ruined seat he was trapped in, he heard a very familiar and quite revitalizing scream.  
J-Hope was awake and trying to get out of his seat like a madman. Suga found himself flying out of his own seat as if he had suddenly gained superhuman strength. He clamped his hand over a hyperventilating J-Hope’s mouth.  
“Shhhh, we don’t know what might be out there.”  
J-Hope closed his eyes tightly and nodded, trying to calm down.  
Suga cringed, hearing Namjoon grumble and start trying to get out of the seat himself. He ignored it.  
Behind him, Jimin’s familiar groan reached his ears.  
“Where am I?” His voice was harsh from screaming almost on impact, but Suga didn’t remember hearing anything else other than his own heart close to exploding inside his brains.  
“On the ground… somewhere.” He was helping a still panicking J-Hope out of his seat, while the others tried to sort themselves out.  
It took a while before all seven of them were finally free and on their feet.  
Once they had all gathered, they realized that they were missing the presence of three people.  
Jin was the one who checked the pulses of both Iseul and Hana. To the team’s dismay, they had both died on impact. But they could do nothing. In unfamiliar territory, they had to be on alert and could spare no time to bury their friends’ bodies.  
“Well… we don’t have these guys, that’s for sure. But where’s the Chief?”  
As if summoned, Master Chief appeared through the battered doorway with a loaded assault rifle.  
Suga couldn’t help but smile at the sight. They weren’t alone after all!  
“The Covenant has possession of this ring already. We have to rendezvous with _Foehammer_ three miles north of our position and proceed with a rescue mission to search for survivors,” Master Chief explained.  
“I did a quick scan on the geography within a fifteen mile radius. There seems to be enough cover for us while we head to the Pelican,” Cortana added.  
“We’re loaded up on enough ammo for the next twelve hours,” Namjoon added, hoping to confirm that they were good to go.  
“Well, are we going yet?” Cortana quipped impatiently.  
Without answering, Master Chief headed out of the pod at a steady run. The others shrugged at each other and headed out at a similar pace.  
It was perfect weather. It reminded Suga of his home on Eridanus, back when the universe was as simple as a bowl of rice. He couldn’t help but look up as they ran through the unfamiliar landscape. Above them was part of the structure they were on; the other side of the world.  
It felt a bit strange to him. On every other planet he’d been, the other side was invisible to him. But now, it was there, ever so ominous and unfamiliar. He barely knew the ground they were stepping on at that moment so  an uncomfortable chill ran up his spine at the thought of perhaps having to travel to the other side of the ring to more unfamiliarity. His attention snapped back forward when the others began to sing the cadence they had all learned as cadets.  
_Helljumper, Helljumper, where you been?_  
Feet first into hell and back again!  
When I die please bury me deep!  
Place an MA5 down by my feet!  
Don't cry for me, don't shed no tear!  
Just pack my box with PT gear!  
Cuz one early morning 'bout zero-five!  
The ground will rumble, there'll be lightning in the sky!  
Don't you worry, don't come undone  
It's just my ghost on a PT run! 

At a mile and a half, Suga could feel the sweat start to drip down his face and back. He glanced over at the other members of their team. J-Hope, running beside him, was barely singing anything at all.  
Suga swallowed. J-Hope was usually the one who yelled it out with passion. He wanted so much to stop and make sure that J-Hope was alright, but he knew that for the good of the whole group, they couldn’t do that.  
He tried to look over at J-Hope to make eye contact with him, but he had no way to grab _dongsaeng_ ’s attention. J-Hope didn’t seem to notice anything, staring at the boots of Jin in front of him. Suga sighed, a pause in his own part sounding briefly.  
Before the two and a quarter mile mark, the Chief stopped, holding his hand up. The air became still with the absence of their cadence. Suga’s senses were on high alert, and the air buzzed with energy around them.  
It was an ambush. 


	2. Falling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The team has another shoot-off with the Covenant, J-Hope and Suga have some things to work out, and Namjoon and Jin have a conversation.

Park Jimin hated newness. He hated everything about this planet. He hated how the grass and the ground were rough and harsh and how none of the colors around them made sense. He hated how all of a sudden he was hiding behind a pukey-brown-colored boulder next to Taehyung and he couldn’t see Jungkook anywhere. He hated how they were so close to the _Foehammer_ but since they were inside a ravine, the pilot couldn’t see them. He hated how far they were from home and everything they knew.  
But somehow, Jimin felt more comfortable than ever. In the familiarity of battle, he had no time to think about any of these things. He only had time to shoot off the butt-ugly faces of the Covenant. Consumed with the heat of battle, Jimin barely noticed a round plant itself right next to his face in the rock wall.  
V noticed it, however, and he let out a growl. “I hate Elites…”  
“I hate everything about this place…” Jimin answered, reloading his automatic with another clip.  
“Even that Jungkook’s in it?” V retorted between pulls of the trigger.  
Jimin had no answer for that. He simply smiled to himself and fired more fiercely at a Grunt that was about to get to the other side of the ravine where the rest were hiding- including Jeon Jungkook.  
His attention was briefly captured by Master Chief. The massive Spartan was fighting efficiently and with apparently barely any thought to his own safety. He seemed to have picked up one of the Covenant’s favorite tools of destruction: the dreaded Energy Sword.  
It had two blades of glowing blue shaped plasma and was wielded with one hand. Many a Marine had died a cruel death at the fatal twin-scythes of the Elites. Jimin again smirked to himself. Oh, how the tables had turned. Now, the Chief was wreaking Havoc on the Covenant’s ranks. He glanced over at the other side. He saw Namjoon peeking over as well and smiling widely. If they didn’t have the Chief, they’d be dead for sure.  
Before long, the Covenant had either fled or died, thanks to the combined efforts of the fire team and Master Chief himself.  
“Bangtan, move out!” Namjoon called, when there were no living Covenant fighters left in the space in front of them.  
They met the Chief at the _Foehammer_. Jimin had barely noticed him go ahead of them to scout out the area and kill the other Covenant.  
The _Foehammer_ was the most beautiful and welcome thing Jimin had ever seen in his life. She was a dropship with her own scars- dents where plasma shots had hit her and burst into nothingness, and her pilot was a woman with many stories to tell. On her hull was marked her official name: Echo-419.  
Carol Rawley was the _Foehammer_ ’s no-nonsense Lieutenant and pilot with many years of experience and service under her belt. Jimin had met her only once before, while on Reach before the place was glassed. He knew, however, that she and Namjoon had worked together for a good amount of time and he saw this when they boarded the Pelican.  
Namjoon had a huge smile on his face as they all strapped themselves in.  
“Rough day, guys?” Carol called out to them.  
“Definitely had better!” Namjoon returned, still smiling widely.  
There was no time for any more chit-chat as they lifted off into the air. Jimin breathed a sigh of relief and he briefly rested his head against the back of the seat, closing his eyes. He startled briefly upon feeling a nudge. Jungkook was staring at him and smiling.  
“We’re alive,” Jimin saw him saying. He couldn’t help but grin in return, nudging Jungkook back.  
His smile faded a little when he caught sight of Master Chief staring out into the landscape below.  
There were so many rumors around this man. But also an infinite amount of stories. Jimin could hardly believe he was sitting there in front of him and Jungkook like a silent giant. He had so many questions. What was it like being six foot ten? Were the stories really true? Was he really a kidnapped child from Eridanus? Surely the famous Doctor Halsey who had created this life-saving program wouldn’t do such a thing? But Jimin knew: it was all truly a mystery. Such secrets would probably remain secrets forever. 

\---  
They only got five more troops after that. All of them were tired and battle-worn, but with mixed feelings about being alive. Jung Hoseok could relate to all of the expressions on their faces. He was glad they had survived, but at what cost? To keep fighting and fighting for nothing?  
J-Hope couldn’t bear that. But what they had accomplished so far was slightly uplifting. His gaze briefly lighted on Suga. J-Hope knew the man was concerned about him. But he didn’t want to talk about it. He didn’t want to admit that once again he was back to the boy he was at the Academy: screaming and cowardly, always running away from everything. He thought he had changed forever. Clearly he hadn’t.  
He glanced away when he felt Suga’s gaze intensify. J-Hope was not up for that uncomfortable conversation, despite how often they had those genres of talk.  
_Well_ , he rationalized, _it’s not usually about this._  
Fifteen more minutes of avoiding gazes passed before they started to descend at a mobile Station. Suddenly J-Hope felt filthy all over. He started twitching with nerves to get to the showers as fast as possible.  
He made no eye contact with any of his team, following closely after Namjoon as they entered the barracks together.  
    “What’s with him?” He heard V whisper to one of the others. There was no answer. J-Hope assumed that whoever V was talking to shrugged and made a face.  
    J-Hope grimaced and focused on getting to the showers as fast as he could, stripping off all his gear without a second thought once he got to his bed of choice.  
    “J-Hope…!” Suga was the last one to enter the barracks, and he immediately headed over to Hoseok. “Hey, what’s going on?”  
    “Not now, Suga. I need to relax.” At this point he was stripped down to trousers and his standard white t-shirt, stained with sweat.  
    “Hoseok, you’re not putting this off.”  
    “I really can’t think right now, _hyung_.” J-Hope shrugged off Suga’s hand on his shoulder and headed to the showers. “We’ll do it after,” he muttered.  
    He could hear whispers going behind him.  
    “Leave him be…”  
    J-Hope slammed the door to the shower.  
\---  
    Kim Seokjin hated seeing Hoseok upset. Everyone did, in fact. Jin knew he wasn’t the only one.  
    Hoseok was their travelling sunshine and the one who basically kept them sane. Whenever he stopped smiling, it was as if the entire universe died each and every time. Of course, it was up to everyone to try to make him feel better, but it was truthfully harder for them to brighten his day than it was for him to brighten theirs.  
Jin winced on the door slam. An uncomfortable silence filled the room after J-Hope left. Suga began to settle into the bunk above J-Hope’s bunk, stripping down like everyone else. Then he sat and waited. Jin watched him staring at the door of the showers then he went over to the chairs and tables in the centre of the room.  
“I’m gonna clean my weapons. If anyone wants to join me over here, you’re all welcome,” he announced to the room, including the five they had picked up.  
Namjoon looked at him and nodded, picking up his own assault rifle and two pistols. “Sure.”  
Jin noticed V, Jimin and Jungkook look at each other, shrug and come join him with their weapons and gear. Suga, to Jin’s disappointment, remained on his bunk, static.  
“Well… how are we doing?” Namjoon finally spoke up after some silence.  
Jungkook shrugged. “Was better when we were heading here.”  
Nobody wanted to admit that they were bothered by J-Hope’s mood, and by extension, Suga’s mood.  
Another moment passed before Namjoon sighed. He glanced up towards Suga who was by now lying in his bunk looking up at the ceiling.  
“Suga!” Namjoon called. There was no answer or even a response. “Min Yoongi, get over here.”  
Suga’s glare immediately snapped towards all of them.  
“Don’t call me that. I’m not Min Yoongi, I’m Suga. I’ve made that abundantly clear.”  
Namjoon cocked his head to the side. “I needed to get your attention. Get over here.”  
Despite the worse mood that Suga was now in, he still came and stood in front of the group, arms crossed.  
“What?” He demanded.  
“Sit down.” Namjoon nodded to a chair next to V. Suga didn’t stop glaring at Namjoon as he passed him to sit down.  
“I’m still older than you…” Suga muttered, almost incoherently, resting his head on the back of the chair and staring up at the ceiling again. Only quiet chatter could be heard from the five in the corner.  
“I’m still your Sergeant,” Namjoon retorted, glare threatening silence into Suga. “So? What’s going on?”  
“After calling me that, I’m not sure it’s any of your business…” Suga grumbled, .  
Jin watched the interaction with baited breath. _Oh God, is Suga going to snap once and for all?_  
“Fine, I’m sorry.” Namjoon exhaled with exasperation. It barely helped at all.  
Instead of accepting the apology, Suga shook his head and closed his eyes, taking a deep, slow breath.  
“Suga, you think I don’t care about my team?” Namjoon demanded to know, suddenly tense.  
“If you did care, you wouldn’t call me _Min Yoongi_ , just like you said you would never do! Even for your whatever reasons!” Suga got up and stormed out of the room.  
With a groan, Namjoon slumped forward, putting his gun down and his head in his hands.  
Jin felt culpable, suddenly. He sighed and placed his hand on Namjoon’s arm, looking at the other three who were wide-eyed and a little unsettled.  
“You know what, guys? Let’s just go to bed. We’ll do this tomorrow at o-five-hundred hours before we have to head out.”  
The three youngest nodded and took their guns, looking back at Jin and Namjoon.  
“Come on, time for bed…” Jin coaxed gently, moving his hand up to Namjoon’s shoulder.  
“I was too harsh on him, wasn’t I?” Another sigh came from the still slouching leader.  
“We’re all tired. I don’t blame anyone for what’s happened now.”  
“Seokjin-ah, I’m supposed to keep us from falling apart.” Namjoon finally looked up at Jin pointedly.  
“We’ve been on the run for over a week and it just culminated with falling from space in a stupid little lifepod that’s not even that well designed. I’m actually a little surprised that what happened went as well as it did…” Jin felt quite satisfied in his reasoning, and he stared at Namjoon with wide eyes, neither of them moving.  
“Stupid little lifepod…” Namjoon chuckled bitterly, all of a sudden.  
Jin couldn’t help but smile at that. “O-five-hundred?”  
“O-five-hundred,” Kim Namjoon answered as they both stood and headed to their shared bunk bed.  
\---  
Hoseok had heard everything. It hadn’t been a very long shower so once he finished, he crouched beside the door to the bunk room. Once there was no audible speech, he slumped against the door and sighed sadly.  
Great. Just great. He’d managed to create all of this… _crap_ , frankly, just by having emotions. Sometimes he just wished he could live up to his own name _all the time_. But it just was too much pressure.  
“Ah!” He sat back for a moment, trying to contemplate what to do. He had two options. Either he could go find Suga and talk with him, or he could just go straight to bed and deal with it tomorrow. Both options were unpleasant, however. If he tried at that moment, Suga wouldn’t be in the right mood for talking, but if he waited, Suga would resent him for not trying to communicate at all. _God, why is he so complicated?_  
After a long time of contemplation, J-Hope finally decided. He opened the door and snuck to his bed. At that point, it was dark in the room.  
“Hoseok-hyung, is that you?” he heard Jimin’s gentle voice whisper from the bunk next to his and Suga’s.  
J-Hope froze. “Yeah. Good night, Jimin-ah.”  
“Alright, good night, Hoseok-hyung. Sleep well.”  
J-Hope hesitated. “... You too, Jimin-ah.” He crawled into bed. There was no snoring from the bunk above so either Suga was lying in bed awake, or he wasn’t there at all. J-Hope didn’t know, but he didn’t want to find out, either.  
It was an hour before he heard someone climbing up above him. He wanted to say something, but he wasn’t in the mood. He knew Suga wasn’t in the mood either.  
And with that, J-Hope finally drifted to sleep. 

\---

Kim Taehyung laid on the top of the bunk over which Namjoon and Jin were sharing, looking at the dark ceiling. Out of the blue, he heard Namjoon’s whisper.  
“What do you think it was?”  
V couldn’t help but inch closer to the edge, trying to listen. Maybe he was saying something important.  
“Sorry, what?”  
“Oh, were you asleep?”  
“Kind of.”  
“Oh, sorry.” V could hear the cringe in Namjoon’s tone.  
“No, it’s ok. What did you ask?”  
“What do you think it was?”  
“What do I think what was?”  
“Whatever bothered J-Hope so much.”  
“I’d guess it had something to do with the life pod?”  
Namjoon sighed. V froze as he heard the door to the barracks open. He could vaguely make out Suga’s form tip-toeing to the bunk where J-Hope was sleeping. Then there was silence for a minute. All of a sudden, there was a large shuffle and a noise of protest. V froze again, barely daring to breathe.  
Once everything had settled, Jin and Namjoon got to whispering again.  
“Something to do with the life pod?” Jin repeated.  
“I think so? That’s why I wanted to ask… you know.”  
“Ah…” V heard Jin breathe out in understanding. He breathed too. “Well, I guess after some rest, hopefully either of them will be up for talking tomorrow.”  
“Hopefully… God, I really do hope so.” Namjoon sighed. “I’d hate to get the next mission and find that they’re still not talking to me or any of us.” There were two breaths. “It’s a matter of life and death, yeah?”  
“I know.”  
“We just have to have each other’s backs. We can’t go anywhere. The Pillar of Autumn is done for, and we don’t know how long we’ll be stuck here.”  
“If we’ll even survive.”  
“Shut up, Seokjin, don’t talk like that.”  
“I’m just saying-”  
“I know, I know. I just… don’t want to think about that.”  
“Namjoon, just think. There’s Covenant on this ring… planet, thing. We don’t know how many. But as you said, our ship is dead. We don’t know if anyone can rescue us. If they try, they might get destroyed. Scratch that, they _will_ get destroyed. We might have no other choice.”  
“Jin, could you just…”  
“Sorry.”  
“I can’t let this happen. I just can’t.”  
There was more shuffling and suddenly V could see their heads close to his face. They were sitting upright, clinging to each other.  
“We’re gonna fight to the end… Our efforts will count and we won’t be forgotten.” Jin’s voice sounded warm and comforting. V could hear a faint sniffling but he wasn’t sure who it was coming from.  
V fell asleep before the shuffling began again, this time leading into silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Thursday, everyone! 
> 
> I hope you guys are enjoying the story thus far! There's lots of stuff that's coming up *eyebrow wiggling* and I think that y'all will like it. ;)
> 
> Here's a question for you: who's doing NaNoWriMo? ;) I am! I'm not doing very well thus far but I'm trying haha. 
> 
> Anyways, please leave a comment, let me know if you're enjoying it, and I'll see you all on Tuesday!
> 
> 안녕!!
> 
> <3
> 
> SmolNerd


	3. Flying

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Namjoon breaks the news. The tension builds.

J-Hope woke up to an arm in his face. Confused, he followed the forearm all the way up the shoulder, to a neck, to a face.  
It was Suga, still sleeping like a dead Brute. J-Hope’s breath caught. He was suddenly afraid of moving. _Are you kidding me?!_ But he had to get up. It was just about o-five-hundred hours and he could barely see Jin and Namjoon up and at it.  
Slowly, he started to roll out from under the arm. But there was a groan and he stopped, wincing. Suddenly Suga curled in closer to him. J-Hope whimpered and went all for it, falling out of bed. Jin apparently seemed to notice and went over to him, smiling widely.  
“Oh, you’re up! Nice to see you joining us!”  
J-Hope looked at him and put his finger to his lips, then looked back at Suga who by now was stirring.  
Suga opened his eyes, blinked once, twice, and then sat up with a grimace.  
“What are you doing?”  
“Oh, I was just… nothing.”  
“That was a disappointing waking up…” Suga sighed.  
J-Hope didn’t really know what to say. He looked up where Jin had been standing, only to find that he had moved back to wake up V. He sighed then too and got up off the ground.  
    “Somebody wake up Jimin and Jungkook, please. It’s o-five-hundred…” Jin spoke up.  
    J-Hope looked to Jin, then to Namjoon, then to Suga. He wasn’t in the mood for this, but Suga wasn’t moving to do it. He was just sitting there glaring at him.  
    “What?”  
    There was no answer. Namjoon rolled his eyes and grabbed his guns, going back to the seat where he had been the previous night.  
    “Fine, I’ll do it…” J-Hope finally said and then went over to Jimin and Jungkook’s bunk bed. He took a good long look at the two. Jimin, on the top bunk, was lying haphazardly, limbs spilling over the sides. Jungkook was the exact opposite. He was lying against the side curled into a ball on the bottom bunk.  
    He sat down on the bottom bunk, grabbing Jungkook’s shoulders. “Jungkook-ah, time to get up.” There was only a moan in response. “Jungkookie… please wake up.”  
    “It’s o-five-hundred, isn’t it?” Jungkook’s voice was croaky with sleep.  
    “Yes, Jungkook-ah.”  
    There was a groan in response as the youngest extended his limbs and started to get up.  
    J-Hope smiled slightly in satisfaction and stood to wake up Jimin. He grabbed Jimin’s forearm… but just as he opened his mouth to say something, Jimin sat up like lightning, eyes wide open. Somehow he had managed to grab one of his small pistols from under the pillow and he pointed it at J-Hope.  
    “Woah!” J-Hope sprang back, hands shooting up into the air.  
    “Stop! Don’t move!” Jimin’s voice was shaking a little as his aim moved from J-Hope to Jin, to V, to Namjoon...  
    The others were suddenly fully awake and staring at Jimin.  
    “Jimin, you’re alright…” Jin ventured, voice calm and gentle.  
    “Don’t come any closer!”  
    Jungkook slowly moved forward on his bed, trying to get a look at Jimin.  
“Jiminie-hyung…!” he called out.  
“Jungkook-ah?” Jimin suddenly choked up. He dropped the gun on the bed and burst into tears, curling up against the wall. The tension in the room broke and all of Bangtan rushed to him. J-Hope grabbed the gun off the bed and Jungkook climbed up to the top bunk to comfort Jimin.  
It was a while of Jungkook rocking Jimin back and forth and sobbing being the only sound in the room before Jimin was able to calm down.  
“Jimin-ah, forgive me. I should have been gentler waking you up…” J-Hope’s voice was quiet. _Could today go any worse?_  
Jimin shook his head and moved forward to reach for J-Hope’s hand. J-Hope hesitated in taking it, but he did. Jimin squeezed it and swallowed, shaking his head again.  
“Wasn’t your fault. Wasn’t anybody’s.”  
“Guys, I hate to break this up, but we need to clean our weapons before breakfast. We might have to move out soon.” Namjoon’s face looked tired and he crossed his arms, something he never did.  
The group nodded and moved to get ready. Eventually they were all in the middle of the room again, cleaning diligently. This time nobody said anything. The air was heavy with tension.  
Suddenly, Namjoon’s eyes lifted.  
“Atten-hut!”  
They all sprang out of their seats into position and turned to face the doorway. The other five also stood at attention.  
It was the other Lieutenant at the station.  
“At ease, men.”  
They all put their hands behind their backs and separated their legs, still staring straight ahead.  
“You’re summoned to a mission briefing at o-seven-hundred hours.”  
“Yes, sir!” They all replied in unison.  
“This one’s big, sergeant. Don’t be late.”  
“No sir!” Namjoon responded.  
“That is all,” the Lieutenant said, before stalking out the door. They all let out a breath simultaneously.  
“I guess this is it…” Jin sighed. Namjoon looked at him sadly.  
“Yes…” He sat down and resumed his cleaning. “Let’s get it done, guys.”  
Everyone else except for V looked at each other and kept going with their cleaning, making a concentrated effort to get it done. J-Hope noticed V being contemplative, but he didn’t say anything. He just didn’t really wanna talk to anyone.  
    Within another half hour, they were finished and headed off to the miniscule mess-hall in the station. There was only one long table fit for 20 people at the most including higher-ranking officers. The room was rather stinky of mold, especially since as a mobile station it was often packed away, food crumbs and all.  
    Breakfast was sunny-side-up eggs and biscuits, stale and under cooked. Even Jin had to make an effort not to complain about the food’s state.  
    “The food is kind of... “ V muttered.  
    “We’re on an alien planet. What would you expect?” Namjoon shushed him.  
    “Let’s just eat guys, the mission briefing is sooner than you think,” Jin put in a good point.  
    J-Hope said nothing and dug in. He had to try hard not to have a permanent grimace as he chewed. The egg was gooey in his mouth but when put together with the brittle, burnt toast, it was an even worse combination.  
    Tins of coffee were passed down the table. It was hot at least. J-Hope would have truthfully preferred the medication that he would get as a kid whenever he got sick.  
    By the end of the meal a gag was heard at the opposite end of the table. J-Hope and the older ones of the group looked over to see Jungkook holding his hand over his mouth and looking ashamed.  
    “Sorry…” he muttered, before taking a drink of coffee and swallowing with a grimace. Jimin could only offer a sympathetic half smile as he kept eating. He was too focused on his own thoughts to be able to offer much else.  
    J-Hope was the first to finish, and he left without saying a word to anyone else. He was glad for the quiet in the barracks as he sat down in an empty chair in the middle of the room.    
    Something was going on with Jin and Namjoon. They knew something he didn’t. It was strange, especially since he hadn’t seen or heard them talk to anyone else, anyone in the upper ranks except for this morning and even then, J-Hope had been there for that.  
    J-Hope sighed to himself. Maybe it was just a sergeant thing. Then again, a sergeant and his right-hand man thing. He got up again to wander around the room. At that moment, the door opened and in came…  
    “Suga.” J-Hope’s tone was less than enthusiastic.  
    “Hoseok,” Suga returned, going over to his gear and pulling out his pocket knife. J-Hope couldn’t help but flinch a little as it snapped open.  
    “What?” Suga muttered.  
    “Nothing.”  
    “You thought I was gonna stab you or something?”  
    “Why would I think that?” J-Hope was bewildered. He stepped back momentarily, slightly offended.  
    “That’s what people usually think.”  
    “Suga…” J-Hope approached a little.  
    “On Eridanus, I was part of the Insurrection. After leaving… er, home, I was picked up by a sub-group called _The Fallen Angels_. They were a combat focused group and they taught me everything that the UNSC didn’t teach me later. It’s why I was so good at fighting when I joined the academy.” Suga sat down on J-Hope’s bed and sighed, still staring at his knife.  
    “One of the first things I had to do after my initiation was find a UNSC key military figure and kill him. With this knife.”  
    J-Hope didn’t know why but for some reason he felt that Suga was finally telling the truth for once.  
    “I had a watcher making sure the job was done. I don’t know. He pushed me off the truck when we got there, at the base, and… then I just lost it and killed him instead.”  
    J-Hope finally sat down next to Suga, no longer caring about the knife in his hands.  
    “I’m a little paranoid about carrying this around, honestly. It has _that_ carved into it, and if anyone in the higher ranks find it, I’m sure I’ll be executed.”  
    Sure enough, there was a pair of wings roughly carved into the wooden handle. J-Hope automatically knew that it was a symbol of the group he was talking about.  
    “This is the truth, right?”  
    “Proof’s right here, Hoseok. If you go back to Eridanus and go through UNSC intelligence, you’ll know that _The Fallen Angels_ exist and that they were horrible. You’ll hear about the man that was killed outside the base on Eridanus and how nobody knows to this day who did it. Well, it was me. I did it.”  
    J-Hope didn’t say anything. He simply took the knife, put it down, and reached over to hug Suga.  
    They remained like that for a while until the others came in. Namjoon looked at them, concerned for a moment.  
    “You guys alright?”  
    J-Hope nodded, pulling back from Suga. “Yeah, we’re fine.”  
    “Mission briefing is in half an hour,” Namjoon reminded them. Suga only nodded and took his knife, putting it back into his gear.  
    “Oh. I guess we’ll get ready then.” J-Hope shrugged.  
    “No, not now,” Namjoon said hurriedly then sighed, slowing down. “What I mean is that we’re gonna all try to see if there’s anything we need to sort out before the briefing. No gear preparation or anything like that until we know the specifics.”  
    Jin went over to the table and sat down in a chair, taking Jimin and Jungkook with him. V hesitated before joining them. J-Hope and Suga didn’t have any choice so they too followed Namjoon over to the table.  
    “As we all know,” Namjoon began, “we’re stuck somewhere unfamiliar. We don’t quite know what this thing is, or why it’s here, orbiting _Threshold_. We don’t know how many Covenant are out there, but we’re assuming there’s enough to completely obliterate what’s left of the UNSC presence here and around. Quite frankly, survival for us doesn’t seem to be a given.”  
    The entire room fell silent. There was a feeling of morbidity hanging over their heads. They were all going to die. Their efforts were going to be for nothing.  
    “Can’t they come get us? Can’t there be a fleet to rescue us?” Jungkook tried to reason, still hardly believing that this could happen.  
    Namjoon shook his head sadly. “I doubt they know where we are. And even if they did, there’s hardly anyone that can defeat as many Covenant as there are around here. Their weapons are advanced and difficult to match. Each victory that we’ve had has not come without a massive price.  
“We learned about duty and sacrifice in the Academy. United Nations Space High Command will probably decide that forgoing this battle and letting us die on this ring will be the best decision in order to avoid more human death in the rest of the galaxy. In this case, we are the sacrifice.”  
“What about the mission briefing? That’s got to matter. That’s got to mean something!” Suga suddenly put out.  
“We have no guarantees. The mission might be our last chance to get off of here, it might not be. It might even be HIGHCOM’s last gift to us, so that we die fighting and with honor instead of sitting in our barracks like cowards. I don’t think it means anything…” Namjoon told them honestly.  
“Look, I don’t want to scare you guys. But I have to be honest. This might be the end for us. And we just have to accept it. We can’t walk out of this universe like babies. We’ve got to walk out like men. And we’ve got to leave a dent in the Covenant’s ranks so big that they’ll wonder where we came from.  
“We’re fireteam Bangtan, guys. And we better damn well act like it.”  
At that point, tears were rolling down most of their faces.  
Namjoon rolled his hands into fists and got them all to stand up.  
“Who are we?!” he called out.  
“We’re Bangtan!!” the rest of them answered. Some voices croaked with tears. The rest of them were loud, pushing pride and morale into their hearts, even as the melancholy threatened to overcome them.  
“Good. Come on, let’s head out to the briefing…” Namjoon’s voice was stronger, determined.  
They fell into line and left the room.  
\---  
Park Jimin could barely breathe as they took their seats in the small mission room. This was the last time they’d ever receive a mission. This was the last time someone would present all the details, ask if there were any questions and then send them off to prepare.  
He barely felt the nudge to his shoulder from Jungkook, eyes silently asking if he was alright.  
Jimin was suddenly overcome with fondness but also a sense of horror that they’d never get to do all the things they had planned after their service in the Marine Corps was over. They’d never even have to choose between leaving the UNSC for good or becoming Orbital Drop Shock Troopers, the best they could get to without actually being SPARTANS. They’d never get the chance to get promoted, to even feel the heartbreak of watching their friends go their separate ways.  
He and Jungkook would never get to travel to all the places on Earth, their true home. They’d never get to see everything they missed in space, experience time as everyone else experiences it.  
Jimin almost choked up as he sat there, not even looking at Jungkook or anybody. He felt Jungkook discreetly take his forearm, then slide his hand into Jimin’s and squeeze it.  
Their attention was grabbed by the Lieutenant, an average sized, graying, balding man, who looked serious but also a little somber. Jimin’s stomach clenched into a ball.  
“Good morning, Marines! We have a crucial mission for you that comes directly from High Command! The Office of Naval Intelligence has informed us at o-four-hundred hours, that thirty miles north of our position, there is a Covenant weapons cache in the deep woods. Your job is to find the weapons cache and capture it.  
“It is relatively unguarded, but it will be difficult, as the Covenant has many reinforcements. As we landed here yesterday, a detailed recon mission has not been possible so you will be covering relatively uncharted ground.  
“Any questions?”  
Namjoon lifted his hand. “Will we have Warthogs?”  
“Yes, until you reach the woods. AI Cortana’s quick study of the area shows that the trees are thick and make it impossible for the Warthogs to navigate.”  
Jimin almost wanted to ask, _‘Will we have the Master Chief?’_ But he knew that the Chief had his own business to attend to. He felt saddened that they would not survive this, and they had less of a chance to due to the Chief’s absence.  
“Any other questions?”  
Silence.  
“Right. Go prep, soldiers! Heading out at o-nine-hundred hours!”  
“Yes sir!” They answered and left to get ready.  
Jimin couldn’t help but hope a little. Maybe there would be some last ditch effort to rescue them. Maybe they wouldn’t die. Maybe, just maybe, he’d live long enough to have a family, to fix the mistakes of his parents, to not abandon his own potential children.  
But he knew.  
There was no hope left.  
\---

Jeon Jungkook knew this was the end of the line. There would be no one from his family to carry said line further.  
His gaze was blank as he began to prepare his gear for departure. His mind, however, was light years away, travelling through slipspace.  
He was 10 when the accident happened. Father had been so far away from home. Jungkook had arrived home from school to find his older brother crying over his fallen eomma. Everything happened so fast after that. All he knew was that after a month of just him and his brother, father came home and then left again, this time never to come back.  
His hyung had disappeared soon after that.  
Jungkook knew the taste of loneliness well. And he would rather die with and for his team than go through that feeling again.  
“Sorry!”  
He almost ran into Jin who was running back and forth making everyone had what they needed. It was then that he realized that he didn’t want to lose his hyungs, most of all.  
He looked at Namjoon. The leader was busy re-cleaning his guns, almost paranoid that they misfire and accidentally kill someone. Jungkook would probably cry the most if Namjoon died, especially considering all that the Sergeant had done for him.  
His gaze moved to Jin, the one who always made sure he was fed, warm, and taken care of. A lump formed in Jungkook’s throat, imagining what could happen.  
J-Hope and Suga… oh man, Jungkook felt like he would break to imagine these two opposites yet the lights of his entire world being extinguished.  
V, oh V. The man that made Jungkook smile when the universe was threatening to tumble down around them.  
And when he thought finally of Park Jimin, Jungkook couldn’t help but stifle a sob and almost collapse onto his bed. Ever since they had met, Jungkook felt an inexplicable connection to the man, almost as if they had meant to be together in the cosmos. Jimin had accepted him in the academy and hadn’t stopped accepting him. Jimin was his shoulder to cry on whenever the past came to haunt him, Jimin was everything. Jimin was home.  
Jungkook let his pack fall to the ground and he sat there, trying not to let out an unmanly whimper of sorrow. He didn’t care who noticed. He just wanted to wake up from the nightmare. He wanted Reach to not be dead. He wanted the _Pillar of Autumn_ to not have been destroyed.  
Jeon Jungkook wanted to be happy. But how could he be when existence was crashing down around his ears?  
There had to be something more than this. He just couldn’t accept that this was going to be the end.  
He heard Park Jimin climb down from his bed where he was readying his gear and he felt him put his arm around his shoulders.  
“Jungkookie…” Jimin muttered, curling up next to him.  
“This can’t be it, Jimin-hyung… I don’t want it to end. Not like this.”  
“Me neither, Jungkookie. I wish we had a choice…” Jimin’s voice was weak and tired.  
“I want to do everything we said we’d do… All the plans… I want to know that we’ll live to make choices of what we want to do with our lives.” Jungkook choked up then, and he silently cursed himself.  
“Shhh… Jungkook-ah. We did the best we could. We’ll still do our best until the very end.”  
“That’s not enough. We all know it is.”  
“Life’s not fair. We both know it more than anyone.”  
“Jimin-hyung…” Jungkook hated whining. But more than that, he hated having an open conversation about their pasts.  
“We have to get ready, Jungkook. Come on, finish packing up.”  
Jungkook wiped his eyes and nodded. “Yes, hyung.”  
Namjoon came over to them. “You boys alright?”  
They both nodded sadly, getting back to work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! 
> 
> Terribly sorry for the lateness today :( I really thought it was Wednesday, arrrrgh }:( Bad SmolNerd
> 
> So this was kind of more like a filler chapter, eh? Sorry about that... So disappointing. We will have more action soon, I promise.  
> I hope you guys enjoyed anyways though! :) 
> 
> With that I will see you on Thursday. :D
> 
> Have a good day/night. ;)
> 
> -SmolNerd


	4. Jumping

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Suga tells some of his story. Jimin discovers something about Jungkook.

Namjoon had never been so glad in his life to feel nothing. As they left the room with their packs, he felt numb and senseless. The short hallway seemed to buzz around him as he walked, leading his six and the other five men. He felt his steps grow heavy as they approached the Pelican. And yet, he could gather no emotion for what they were doing. They were going to their deaths and Namjoon felt absolutely nothing.  
And Namjoon knew he should try to get his emotions, his sanity back, but truthfully, he would rather die and feel nothing than the inevitable flood of feeling and sadness that he expected to happen as he lay dying.  
Carol greeted them but all he could manage was a simple “Good to see you again.”  
Sitting next to Jin, he tried to get himself to say something… at least comforting if nothing else. But as much as he tried to get his vocal cords to work, there was nothing.  
Jin was the one who spoke up instead.  
    “We’re gonna be just fine.”  
Namjoon could only nod and try to offer a sad smile. But he couldn’t even make himself feel scared.  
What was once comforting was then terrifying. To feel inhuman as he was surrounded by the most natural feelings of self-preservation made him weak and that was utterly hateful.  
He was the one closest to the back ramp and below them, the ground and the station got smaller.  
Finally observing the surroundings, he noticed that the station was located on a mesa. It had been hard-won from the Covenant as the location was ideal for defense. He was able to feel a little bit of pride as he realized how efficiently they would have had to fight to take the place from the Covenant so quickly.  
The mesa got smaller and farther as they flew. Looking out over the land, he noticed the horizon. Instead of seeing merely sky, he saw… water. It was so strange to him, how they could be on the inside of a ring. The landscape curved up before their eyes, instead of down as on Earth.  
Namjoon searched and found some repulsion at that. He realized that he hated this place with a passion. There was nothing natural about it. Not the shape of the world, not the inconsistency of the landscape. There could be a snowy mountain next to a desert and for here that was natural. Clearly whoever or whatever had made this thing had a horrible sense of humor.  
Hold on… ‘made this thing’? Suddenly Namjoon found himself bubbling with an idea. Maybe… maybe… they could find out who it was that had thought of such an absurd world. Who had made it?  
He was no longer consumed by emptiness, but rather, excitement. The finding of this weapons cache would perhaps lead to a clue. And then another… and another…  
Maybe they did have a chance after all! 

\---

V couldn’t help but wonder: what on earth was Namjoon smiling about? They were going straight to their deaths and he was smiling as though… they were at a party?  
He frowned to himself and looked away. He didn’t want to think about Namjoon losing it which was entirely possible.  
    V didn’t want to lose it either. In fact, that would be completely and totally terrible. But what else could he do? Sit there and giggle like Namjoon was doing? He narrowed his eyes. Was this planned and Namjoon just terrible at hiding it?  
    What a stupid idea! V had to resist jumping off the Pelican out of sheer embarrassment and horror at what his head was coming up with. No, it wasn’t Namjoon who was losing it. It was V.  
    There was suddenly a hit against the hull and V clamped his own hand over his mouth to refrain from yelping like a puppy. There were more hits and V soon understood.  
    The Covenant had spotted them.  
    “We’re dead for sure now…” he muttered, wincing.  
    “I’m gonna have to improvise a little here!” Carol yelled out from the pilot’s seat. “You’ll have to walk more but it’ll give you a better chance of surviving before your actual task begins!”  
    “Alright!” V heard Namjoon yell back over the din.  
    Any chance was a good chance… But it was also a bad chance. It was just delaying the inevitable.  
    V just wanted to get it over with. Just get through the gore and the pain already, go through the light-filled tunnel and the life flashing before his eyes. He just wanted to find out what there was after, if anything. It was all useless at this point.  
    “Damn Covenant…” his jaw clenched and he glared out the back of the Pelican. He hated them for existing and complicating everything. If they hadn’t screwed everything up, then they’d just be fighting simple Insurrectionists and winning.  
    “We’re gonna do what we can…” Jin said in return.  
    V couldn’t help but scoff. That wouldn’t achieve anything. All these victories were nothing in the face of what the Covenant had done to humanity.  
    Fighting against genocide was doing nothing. V knew that it wasn’t just the end of the team, it was the end of the universe as they knew it.  

\---  
They landed at the edge of the forest about ten kilometers away from the original planned drop site. That meant they had at least forty kilometers to walk. It would take them over a day, but they had enough supplies to last them.  
Suga personally thought that Meals, Ready-to-Eat (or MRE’s, as they were known) were disgusting… but still better than starving. The concept was not that different from six hundred years ago, but somehow humanity had not managed to find a solution for the utter mess that were MRE’s. Suga was completely prepared to make a burger from scratch, even if it meant starting from the very beginning and killing the animal himself.  
In fact, Suga would even try a Grunt burger, if he had to. Grunts were disgusting, little creatures. Completely unsuitable for anything but temporary punching bags. Suga questioned why they were even part of the Covenant. They were even more useless than Marines most of the time.  
_Ah… not like it matters._  
Suga’s attention snapped back to the forest as soon as Namjoon gave the signal to start walking. He heard a sigh from V and silently agreed. This was going to be a long day.  
Suga looked over at J-Hope. He couldn’t help but sigh as well, seeing that the man was still no closer to smiling again. In fact Namjoon was the one who was extremely cheerful, much to Suga’s confusion. How… unnatural. He grimaced to himself, marching on.  
Suddenly a song he had heard somewhere came to his mind. Not the cadence, but something that he knew just as well. He murmured it as he marched along.  
_“Wae siganeul heobihae…”_ he breathed, _“nae pi ttamdeuleun jeongjikhae… ja ije geu teuropie nae ireum bakgo…”_  
“Come back home…” Suga heard a voice behind him finish and he turned around, startled.  
It was J-Hope, looking just as confused as Suga felt. He turned back around and saw J-Hope catch up to his pace.  
“You know that?” Suga questioned, still feeling rather out of place.  
“I do, but I can’t do the singing parts well...” J-Hope blushed and shrugged.  
“Me neither… I learned it a long time ago. I don’t remember how or where. I never really related to it though.”    
J-Hope looked down and a tiny little smile appeared on his face.  
“That’s funny. I know my mom liked it a lot even if I didn’t get to see her that much. I didn’t think anyone else knew it.”  
Suga couldn’t help but smile at the return of J-Hope’s own smile even if his own heart felt black at the mention of parents in general.  
“I don’t know what my parents liked. Except for belts and sticks.”  
This earned him some concerned looks from both behind and in front of him.  
J-Hope looked horrified. “Your parents… did th-”  
“Yeah. They did other things too. But I’d rather not talk about those.”  
The entire group stopped and looked at him. Suga felt naked under their appalled stares.  
“Guys, can we just keep walking…” Suga groaned, averting his gaze. There was a moment of hesitation before they listened and kept going.  
“I remember a moment when I was six or seven… I was in school and the teacher asked us to draw a picture and write a couple of sentences about ‘home’. Instead of drawing a house with people, I drew the planet, animals, plants… and space.  
“The teacher got mad because she thought I wasn’t listening to the assignment… But to me, home was something that I didn’t know. Something wonderful. It sure as hell wasn’t a house with people. Strangers, I might say. It was something much better. And I just didn’t know what it was.  
“As for the writing, I simply wrote, ‘Home is me.’ I failed the assignment. My parents beat me when I got home as soon as they were told.”  
For a moment Suga regretted ever opening his mouth, as soon as he saw the completely desolate look on J-Hope’s face.  
But he knew that it was best that someone know this. Before it all disappeared and was forgotten.  
The relief of having told soon flooded over Suga and he wondered why he had not talked about it before.  
The others didn’t even turn around to ask if what Suga was saying this time was the complete and total truth. They knew. As horrifying as it was, this was it, the complete and total truth they had all been wondering about.  
Silence fell over the entire group, all minds churning with the effect of Suga’s story on each one. Some, like Jungkook, understood more or less, but those who had grown up with kind parents found the idea of home not being where they grew up completely foreign.  
“I used to imagine that I had a mother and a family to bring honor to at all. But that wasn’t the case when I grew up. But when I left the Academy to join you, I learned what home really is. It’s with the people that accept you despite everything.”  
This time he got some brighter glances and some pats on the shoulder or back as they walked. He looked down, feeling sheepish.  
“I’m sorry for lying for so long… I guess I was just scared.”  
“We still love you, Suga. As bros do.” Namjoon answered, and Suga couldn’t help but snicker a little.  “Anyone else want to be emotional? We got some time to kill.”  
The others chuckled despite themselves and for once in his life, Suga truly felt free.  
\---

At nightfall, they had covered about twenty kilometers to their destination. Clearly worn but still enthusiastic, Namjoon ordered their final stop. They couldn’t really travel much further at night, even if they had been trained to do so. They were all worn. Nobody could or wanted to walk. In general, the five other marines gathered in a group separate from Fireteam Bangtan.  
But they all knew that they were all in it together.  
“We’re doing standard rotations. Two people on watch at a time, we go down by rank. Jin and I start.”  
Jin set out his bedding between V and Namjoon. There was no way he was letting them get too far.  
As the others settled down, Jin cleared his throat.  
“You were unusually cheerful on the Pelican this morning. Wanna explain?”  
Namjoon smiled uncomfortably. He seemed to have no idea it was that obvious.  
“I had this random thought. It might give us a chance…” he began.  
Jin nodded. “Okay, let’s hear it.”  
“I was thinking about how whoever made this thing had no sense of humor.”  
“What… God?”  
“No, no. It wasn’t God. It was… something else. When we were coming in on the lifepod, I couldn’t help but notice the outside of the ring. Do you remember what it looked like?”  
“No. I was too busy trying not to die.”  
“It didn’t look natural. It looked more man-made.”  
Jin frowned. “Hm…”  
“Don’t you get it? If we find whoever made this thing, we might have a chance of getting off!”  
“Really?”  
“Yeah. They could help us!”  
“Are you absolutely sure!”  
“Positive!”  
“But what if they’re not around anymore? Who knows how old this thing is!” Jin sighed, still not convinced. Namjoon was right, dammit, but deep inside, Jin was still scared that they didn’t have a chance at all.  
“I’ll take any chance we have. No matter how small. If we die, I want to die trying to achieve something rather than accepting our lot and hardly being able to do anything. We all know that capturing this weapons cache can hardly help our case.”  
“How are we gonna tell the guys?”  
“I’ll let them know. Eventually. Before we get there. I just don’t want them to get too excited. Because as you said, it’s still just a small chance.”  
Jin nodded, feeling a little better about the entire thing.  
“I’m just glad to know you’re not losing it. I can’t be the only one who noticed and was thinking the same thing.” Jin couldn’t help but smile to himself at the image of Namjoon grinning like a goofball for no good reason. “Not many people smile on their way to dying.”  
“Mmm… I don’t know about that…” Namjoon hummed. “Maybe nihilists?”  
Jin scoffed and slapped him on the arm. “You’re too smart for your own good sometimes, eh, Namjoon?”  
Namjoon chuckled quietly. “Not in the mood for philosophy?”  
“I’m never in the mood for philosophy,” Jin corrected and laid back on his bedroll.  
“Well, suit yourself. Also, laying back now almost guarantees you’ll fall asleep before time.”  
Jin groaned. “Oh, Namjoon, it’s more comfortable like that.”  
Namjoon said nothing and rolled his eyes, then turned to scan the surroundings.  
The forest was like nothing Jin had ever seen before. It wasn’t any of the right colors, but it felt as real as the forests back home. There was no silence. Either there were crickets and other animals of the night, or there was the occasional boom of a distant battle.  
Those made Jin a little paranoid. He thought from time to time during pauses of the crickets that something would come out from between the thick trees and slaughter them all.  
But then again, Jin also knew that either the Covenant was too big, as in the case of Elites and Brutes; or too stupid and clumsy, as in the case of Grunts, in order to make a good stealth attack.  
    As soon as he realized that he was falling asleep in his thoughts, he sat back up, blinking.  
    “I was right, wasn’t I?” Namjoon looked perfectly smug where he was, picking the leaves off a small, fragile clover.  
    “Shut up, Namjoon,” Jin groaned again, rubbing his eyes.  
    Namjoon clamped his hand over his mouth in order to keep from giggling.  
At that point, the sun was completely gone. The forest was bathed in darkness, instead of the muted light of day.  
Namjoon couldn’t help but yawn. He checked the time. “Thirty more minutes!”  
Jin sighed. Keeping watch was the worst part of the night. Jin loved sleep, but he had to admit: he didn’t love sleep as much as Suga did. He thought back to the morning, which seemed like an eternity ago, especially considering how big the planet was. The only reason J-Hope had not died for accidentally waking Suga up is because J-Hope was J-Hope.  
“Oh man, I really want to sleep…” Jin muttered.  
Namjoon looked over and smiled sympathetically. “It’s almost time to wake up the next guys. It’ll go faster than you think.”  
“I know… I’m just… really sleepy.” Jin could barely react as Namjoon clambered over to him and let Jin lean against him.  
“Twenty-nine minutes left…” 

\---  
Jeon Jungkook startled awake. The first thing he saw was the face of Namjoon, his leader peering down at him.  
    “You and Jimin are up.”  
Looking over at Jimin’s spot next to him, he saw the elder already awake but looking rather upset.  
It took everything Jungkook had in his body in order to sit up and look out. Blinking, he watched Namjoon curl up close to Jin, who was already out. Then he looked over at Jimin who was watching the others sleep with glassy eyes.  
He mustered a sad little half-smile and took advantage of the moment to reach into a pocket and pull out a small bottle of pills. Flipping it over, he briefly considered avoiding it, but after yawning again, he flipped the bottle open and shook one out.  
Just as he was about to take it, he caught sight Jimin’s confused and mildly appalled gaze.  
“Jungkook-ah, what are you doing?”  
“It’s a wake-up pill.”  
“Where did you get that?”  
Jungkook shrugged, not really wanting to admit.  
“Jeon Jungkook, tell me where you got it.”  
Park Jimin was terrifying when he was angry. And he was most terrifying to Jungkook who shrunk back from him.  
“The doctor on the Autumn! I got it from him!”  
Jimin didn’t look convinced at all. He took the bottle and the single pill that Jungkook was holding and turned it over in his hands.  
“Jungkook-ah… Really…”  
“Yeah…”  
“Why the hell would you need wake-up pills?”  
“Because they help me… wake up.”  
Jungkook could almost see the scoff on Jimin’s lips, made more obvious by the lantern on the ground. He winced. Why did he have to be so dumb under pressure?  
“Duh, Kookie. Any fool can say the same thing.”  
“Look, I didn't want you to be concerned over me. I've been like this for a while.”  
“Jungkook…”  
“It was kind of hard to wake up for a while during the Academy. It was hard. So I went to the doctor and he gave me those.”  
“Then why are you still taking them?”  
“It’s… hard to stop…” Jungkook looked down, avoiding Jimin’s gaze. The elder said nothing and just sat there, staring at the pills.  
After a moment of silence, Jungkook looked back over at Jimin again. Jungkook felt a twinge go through him and he winced. Jimin was no longer looking at him angrily, but instead looked crushed and hurt.  
“Jungkook-ah, why didn’t you tell me about this?” Jimin’s voice was weak and tired.  
Suddenly Jungkook felt like the biggest jerk in the universe. Here he was, thinking about how Jimin was everything, but he didn’t even respect him enough to talk to him about important struggles.  
“I’m sorry…” Jungkook shrunk back, once again avoiding Jimin’s gaze. “I just didn’t want you to get concerned about me. You have enough problems without needing to worry about me and some stupid wake-up pills.”  
Jimin looked stung again. “That’s not how it works, Jungkook-ah. If there’s no trust then what is there?”  
“It’s not that I don’t trust you-”  
“What is it then?”  
“I just said that I didn’t want you to worry-”  
“Kookie, how would you feel if I didn’t tell you about my nightmares and my fits?”  
“Pretty stupid and careless.”  
“And also like I didn’t care enough to let you know.”  
Jungkook tried crawling over to him. “Jimin-hyung, I’m-”  
Jimin held up his hand, pocketing the pills. “Save it Jungkook. I don’t want to talk anymore right now. Do your job and don’t fall asleep on watch.”  
Jungkook was taken aback by Jimin’s sudden coldness towards him. He backed off and sat against a fallen log, not facing Jimin.  
_I’ve really screwed this one up. Now I’m gonna die and Jimin’s still gonna be mad at me…_ Suddenly the despair of impending doom was multiplied by a thousand. He still had the team, but once Jimin told them, Jungkook wouldn’t have been surprised if they started hating him too. He always knew: he wasn’t as great as they thought he was.  
Jungkook barely noticed the tear that started rolling down his face. He wiped it away with disgust. _No crying on watch._ He looked up and around, avoiding looking at Jimin. There was nothing but the eerie forms of darkened trees around them. The spaces in between them felt like they giant mouths, waiting to swallow him. Jungkook shuddered.  
Suddenly he hated himself with a passion. He had to get hooked on the stuff, of course he did. He hadn’t been strong enough to fight the lure that those small, innocuous looking pills had on him. Jungkook had failed. He had failed himself and his team, and everything good that depended on him being well. Failure was unacceptable.  
He checked his watch. Two more hours. Sitting back, he settled into a long watch of self-loathing and internal contemplation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all, thanks for reading! 
> 
> I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please let me know your thoughts in the comments below, I would love to know what you guys are thinking will happen, or maybe some feedback. :)
> 
> I don't really have anything else to say so see you on Tuesday! :)


	5. Running

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sope have a much needed conversation, Taehyung makes friends, and Jikook's situation doesn't improve.

J-Hope pitied whoever was the one who got to wake Suga up. It was either Jungkook or Jimin… Such a shame. Their maknae was too good to lose- a real marksman. And of course, nobody wanted to lose an all-around fantastic guy like Jimin. Rubbing his eyes, he saw that instead of Suga waking up and getting ready for the shift, Jimin was already sitting there. Jungkook was going to bed.  
“Did I miss something? Isn’t it Suga’s turn?”  
“I don’t really want to sleep.”  
J-Hope frowned. “Something happen?”  
    Jimin said nothing and sighed, seemingly staring at nowhere.  
    J-Hope swallowed and sat up. He really wasn’t in the mood for this. “You know what? Go to bed. It’s important. We need everyone on as much energy as possible.”  
    Jimin looked at him, but then shrugged and settled down to try to sleep. J-Hope was mildly surprised at how easy that was. He thought that secretly, Jimin was exhausted but didn’t want to admit it.  
    He crawled over to Suga, taking a deep breath, before taking his shoulder as carefully as possible.  
    “Suga…”  
    J-Hope almost screamed when Suga responded, a hand grabbing his wrist, hard.  
    Upon recognizing him, Suga appeared to get embarrassed. His eyes closed for a moment and he breathed.  
    “Sorry… I didn’t mean to do that.”  
    J-Hope felt confused. Suga never apologized for almost killing whoever woke him up. But then again, it wasn’t usually J-Hope who intentionally woke him. Or even accidentally woke him.  
    “You just scared me a little, it’s fine…” J-Hope smiled nervously, moving back to his own spot and taking a look around.  
    “Jimin and Jungkook go to bed?” Suga rubbed his eyes and sat up.  
    “Yeah.” J-Hope frowned at a now still Jimin, who's peaceful form was breathing slowly and deeply. “They seem to have had some sort of tiff. Jimin didn’t seem to be too happy.”  
    “Well, you can’t exactly blame him. We’re not gonna survive this one. If he’s upset about it and takes it out on Jungkook, well, poor Jungkook. What can we do about it?”  
    J-Hope rolled his eyes. Suga’s mood wasn’t always the most compassionate when he had just woken up. It was always a little irritating, but J-Hope had learned to deal with it. That was one thing that nobody could change about Suga.  
    “I don’t know if that’s what happened, but it seems like they’ll have to talk it over in the morning while we walk.”  
    Suga only shrugged and rubbed his eyes again. He hated staying up for watch, but the others needed sleep as well.  
    But suddenly he turned to look directly at J-Hope. “So… we still have to talk about something.”  
    J-Hope felt confused for a moment but then he remembered and he swallowed. “Oh yeah, we do.”  
    Suga gave him a small smirk. “No getting away this time.”  
    J-Hope sighed and returned a sharp look. “Whatever, Suga.”  
    Suga didn’t react. “So?”  
    “Ah… I don’t even know how to start.” J-Hope looked to the sky, as if trying to find the right words flying around his head.  
    “Well, start like this: I felt such and such because…”  
    “You’re too corny sometimes.”  
    “Shut up…” Suga’s smile was a little bigger now and J-Hope couldn’t help but smile as well. “Just say it: I felt… because…”  
    “Fine.” J-Hope rolled his eyes yet again. “I felt bad because I thought I had gotten past being my old self from when I started at the Academy… It was when we were falling in the life-pod.”  
    J-Hope cringed internally at seeing Suga’s expression soften in sympathy. He didn’t need sympathy… or pity for that matter.  
    “It’s ok to be scared, Hoseok-ah. I think everybody is scared deep inside.”  
    “It’s not ok to scream like a baby…” J-Hope pointed out.  
    Suga sighed. “All of us were and have been expressing fear in different ways. Your way just happens to be screaming. And that’s ok. I could see Jungkook kind of screaming as well, at some point.”  
    “I couldn’t hear anything.”  
    “Me neither.” Suga couldn’t help but chuckle a little. “But do you see my point?”  
    J-Hope sighed this time. “I guess.”  
    “Being a Marine requires being brave, but being brave requires being scared. So I think you’re doing a good job at that. And by extension, so am I.”  
    “You’re scared…?”  
    “I’ve been scared for a long time, Hoseok. I’m more scared than ever, now, that it’s all going to end and I’m not gonna get a chance to live freely… without the lies and with your full acceptance of my past and of me. I’m scared of what will happen.”    
    “Me too…” J-Hope admitted, looking down. “This is it, I guess. Probably our last night, sleeping more or less peacefully.”  
    Suddenly, as if to contradict them, there was a snap near them. J-Hope quickly turned off the small lantern and the two of them looked around to see if there were any lights or easily visible things.  
    Suga quickly grabbed his night vision goggles, scanning the forest around them. J-Hope waited, holding his breath and hoping none of the sleepers made a single sound.  
    Then, Suga shrank back from the direction where V and Jungkook were. There, at about forty yards away, was an Elite, scanning his own surroundings. He didn’t appear to see or hear them, but he seemed to be smelling the air around. This made Suga’s heart beat faster than it already was. He slowly raised a single finger in order to test which direction the wind was moving in through the forest. To his reassurance, he realized that they were in fact, downwind from the Elite fighter.  
Suga sat back in relief, but didn’t take his eyes off of their enemy. He briefly considered waking the others, but at that point, there was nothing else spotted.  
After what seemed like a lifetime, the Elite moved off, and both Suga and J-Hope could breathe again.  
“Oh man, I thought it was over for sure…” Suga breathed, laughing nervously. He was still quiet, just in case it came back.  
“What was it?” J-Hope whispered and looked at Suga, confused. He knew he had needed to be quiet, but he didn’t know what was there.  
“An Elite… He didn’t see us and kept moving.”  
“Woah…” J-Hope gasped in agreement. Suddenly he felt exposed to everything. If the Covenant wanted to, they could slaughter them right there, even before they reached their mission.  
“We almost died, man.” Suga was breathing heavily from the sudden scare.  
“You sound disappointed.”  
Suga laughed bitterly. “Well, guess what? I think I like being alive now.”  
“I think I like being alive too…”  
The two of them fell silent, still reeling from the shock. Before they knew it, their watch was over. 

\---  
V was surprised he was able to see his hand at all when he woke up. There was just a little bit of light, and he was half glad to be the last watch of the night, even if it meant he wouldn’t get to indulge in anymore sleep before… well, ‘it’ happened.  
_Never mind… I’ll sleep when I’m dead_ , he thought, thinking about his grandmother’s penchant for little sleep during the night. V sighed to consider that he probably hadn’t inherited that.  
And the way it looked, he would sleep sooner than it appeared.  
He hadn’t really talked to the other guys, V then realized. There was one sitting up and looking at him, appearing to wait for a reaction.  
V suddenly felt embarrassed for looking back at him without having said much to any of the five others at all.  
“So… you ready?” the man finally spoke up.  
V couldn’t help but notice how deep the guy’s voice was. But it didn’t hold the same gravelliness or authority that he remembered Chief’s voice having. V was then intrigued by the man himself. He saw that he had light tan skin and big, dark brown eyes with a square jaw and sharp nose.  
“Is anyone really ready, ever?” V pointed out.  
“Fair enough.” The other guy shrugged. “What’s your name, soldier?”  
“Kim Taehyung. My team calls me V.” He couldn’t help but smile a little. Maybe there was a little bit of humanity at the end of it all.  “How about yours?”  
“I’m Roberto Sanchez. My friends call me ‘The Boss’ or ‘The Lemon’. Depends on the day.” They both chuckled freely at that. “How’d you get here? What gets you going in the morning?”  
“My parents didn’t really care for me much, so I was raised by my grandmother. She taught me how to be a good man and for me part of that was taking on the duty of helping protect humanity. She passed a few years back, when I had just graduated from the Academy. But I have these guys here. They keep me going. They’re crazy and a little dramatic sometimes, but we’ve had our good times. And bad ones, together.”  
Sanchez appeared to smile at that. “I know how that is. These guys are what’s left of Fireteam Charlie. They’re like family to me. That guy over there, his name is Mavuto Olayinka. He’s like my best friend and he’s also been our leader since Mikhail died. Those two are brothers- Leonard and Benjamin Peters. And him, that’s Park Seongsoo, our resident weapons expert.”  
“Oh, another Park, like Jimin there.” V grinned, then began to point out the others. “Right here, next to me is Jeon Jungkook, and right here is Kim Seokjin, otherwise known as Jin. Over there is our leader, Kim Namjoon, and last but not least, those two are Jung Hoseok and Min Yoongi. But I’m pretty sure if you don’t call Yoongi by Suga, he’ll murder you.”  
“Yeah, I think I caught that from earlier.”  
V blushed to think that their unit’s problems were more open to the others than he had originally thought.  
“Wow, observant.”  
“Well, we’ve all gotta be… That’s the only reason we’re here.”  
“That and sheer, dumb luck.”  
Sanchez chuckled. “True.”  
They sat silently, while  the noise of the forest filled their ears.  
“I told you how I got here… how did you, if you don’t mind me asking?” V felt a little awkward after a while.  
“Well, it’s a long story. In a nutshell, I joined the Marines on a dare. My friends joined with me so I couldn’t back out. They’re all gone… but I keep going for them.”  
“Oh man, I’m sorry.”  
“Oh no, it’s ok. I’m sorry about your grandmother.”  
“Thanks, I guess.”  
Sanchez smiled and shrugged. “Right thing to do I guess.”  
Before long, V realized that he could see more around him. The grey light filled the air around them and V was glad that he could get a better idea of exactly where they were. Then he noticed that the booms in the distance that had gone in intervals all night were fewer and farther between.  
“Should be time to move on soon…” he muttered. “I guess I’ll wake up Namjoon in five.”  
Then a lump formed in his throat and for a moment V was overwhelmed with emotion. This was it. They were moving on. He’d have these last few hours with his family and then that was it.  
Before V knew it, it was time to wake them up. 

\---

Jungkook was the happiest he had ever been in his life- for just a moment. Then once it all washed over him again, he laid back, wanting to go to bed forever this time.  
On the bright side, there wasn’t too long until that. On the bad side, he had to get through a few more hours of shame, not to mention a lot of pain.  
Usually the first face he looked for upon getting up was Jimin’s, but this time he found it being Taehyung’s.  
“Hey…” he groaned.  
“Hey.” Taehyung already looked wide awake from being the last watch and having been up for sunrise.  
Jungkook almost wanted to feel jealous, something different from the guilt that was eating him alive, but then again, he would have been awake with his own feelings even longer and he wasn’t even sure whether he’d make it as it was.  
“This is it…” Taehyung sighed, as he got up to gather his bed-roll and stuff.  
“I’d rather not think about it at all. I’d rather not think about anything in fact.”  
Jungkook found himself cringing when Taehyung gave him that look.  
“Something wrong?”  
Instead of answering, Jungkook avoided his gaze and got to packing his own gear again.  
    He tried to look for someone, anyone. Someone that wouldn’t make him talk.  
    How about… Namjoon?  
    Jungkook almost choked when his eyes accidentally found Jimin first. He could feel his stomach clench into a knot as he felt Jimin’s angry gaze bore into him and he looked down, turning red with shame.  
    _Sorry, Jimin-hyung, I’m sorry._  
    I’m so, so sorry.  
    Suddenly, he wanted to cry again and he knew it was hardly any good, but he wanted to cry and maybe just not exist at all. Because if there was one person that Jungkook never wanted to have angry at him, it was Jimin. And yet, here they were. Because of Jungkook.  
    If he’d just lost it and died like the rest of his family, that would have been nice.  
    Jungkook bit his lip and froze. Oh no. He was going _there_ again.  
    But then he shrugged. Whatever. It wasn’t like it was going last for that much longer. Who honestly cared if he spent his last day _down there_?  
    Jimin would never even know.  
    Neither would any of them.  
    _I would rather not think about anything_ were some mighty fine last words.  
    Namjoon cut through to the fog in his brain. “Let’s get going, guys. We’ll stop in an hour for a nice breakfast.” He held up an MRE and smiled widely.  
    _What the hell, Namjoon?_ Jungkook found himself frowning intensely.  
    He shook his head and got to it.  
    Whatever. 

\---  
Jimin didn’t like being angry. But he was. He was pissed.  
In fact, he thought it had only gotten bigger since the previous night. Especially because he was no longer angry at only Jungkook, but at himself also.  
How could he have been so blind? Jimin cared about everybody, but Jungkookie… oh, Jungkookie!  
Jimin was often overwhelmed with the feeling that he wanted to wrap Jungkook up in his arms and protect him from everything, even though it wasn’t practical, because _Jiminie-hyung’s height is freaking small_. But right at that moment, he just wanted to shake him until his brain finally regained some sense, because _dammit, why, Jeon Jungkook, why?_  
“Woah, Jimin, you alright?” Jimin barely noticed how hard he was pulling on the straps of his pack until he heard Suga gape at him.  
“Fine, thanks for asking.” Jimin didn’t even care how hard he was grinding his teeth together. He rolled his eyes as he briefly watched Suga go and express his confusion to J-Hope.  
He didn’t even think anything while they started to head off. But after some time of walking and ignoring everyone, he could tell they were talking about him by the way everyone was avoiding him and talking in hushed voices.  
Looking around, he noticed the arrangement of people. Namjoon, Jin and V, walking in a strange cluster of three; J-Hope and Suga having a battle of trying to lead each other through the forest, the five strangers walking all together…  
Jungkook at the back, all by himself.  
Suddenly Jimin felt absolutely horrible. But no less angry. The guilt, however, welled up in him and he wasn’t sure how to deal with it. He walked, still looking back, but cringed inside when he noticed that Jungkook looked up at him but flinched away from his gaze.  
_Stupid, stupid, Park Jimin!_  
He hadn’t wanted to hurt Jungkook at all.  
But then again, he had barely said anything. Was Jimin just supposed to shut up about his own feelings?  
_Jeon Jungkook!_  
Jimin could never imagine feeling so angry at someone but so guilty about said anger. But of course the one person who had to trigger that was Jungkook. He let out a growl of frustration as he stepped on a twig that snapped instantly.  
“Uh, hey, Jimin.” Jin turned around and slowed to walk with him. Jimin barely acknowledged him. Jin cleared his throat. “You know, you should sort out whatever’s bothering you within the next…” he paused to glance at his watch, “... the next hour or so. Because well, after that might be a little difficult.”  
“You think I haven’t thought about that?” Jimin was trying very hard not to talk badly back to his hyung. But unfortunately, he just wasn’t good at managing his emotions. And that really did suck.  
“I’m just saying, Jimin-ah… You don’t really want to be left with some unfinished business.”  
Jimin nodded. “I know.”  
“What’s with Jungkook? Why aren’t you walking with him?” Jin suddenly switched to what everyone called the ‘eomma Jin’ voice and suddenly Jimin hated being one of the youngest.  
Jimin was pissed at Jungkook, but he still didn’t know if he would share the youngest’s secret with everyone. Maybe Jungkook wasn’t comfortable with the idea… But then again, like Jimin had said, it would probably be better to just get this over with.  
He glanced back at Jungkook only to find that the youngest was stumbling along with his head hanging. Jimin could feel the cringe emanating from him even from the back and he almost groaned to think of it.  
“Ask Jungkook. It’s not my business.”  
Jimin sighed in relief when he let his subconscious do the talking for him. He just saved himself a whole lot of crap from happening.  
Jin seemed to shrug and fell back in line with Jungkook.  
Jimin was never much of an eavesdropper, but he just couldn’t help it this time. He tried to walk as far back as he could without knocking into one of the other guys and his ears strained to hear Jin quietly and gently asking Jungkook what was going on. His chest constricted to hear Jungkook sniffling.  
“I screwed up…” Jungkook’s voice was weak and Jimin felt so… useless.  
“What did you do, Kookie?” Somehow Jin made that question sound… not like an accusation and Jimin didn’t know how the hell Kim Seokjin did it.  
There was a lot of hesitation. Jimin could hear Jungkook stuttering and trying to find words and inside he wanted to cry almost as much as he still wanted to shake sense into Jungkook.  
“Ah- Jimin-hyung… I-I… He… Wake-” Jungkook sounded teary and Jimin was in pain. “I never meant to- Jimin-hyung…”  
    Jimin wanted to look back but he knew that Jin was probably mad at him now, just for making the maknae cry. But he couldn’t help it. They needed to know. They all needed to know. It’s not like Jungkook demonstrated having trust in them anyways.  
    He stopped to the side and went to Jin, taking the pills out of his pocket. “These.”  
    Jin seemed rather taken aback by Jimin suddenly coming up to them. “Jungkook-ah, what are these?” he asked, voice somehow still gentle.  
    Jungkook didn’t look up. He only started to cry, hiding his face in his hands.  
    “What are they, Jungkook?” Jimin asked, firmly. He winced at how harsh his own voice sounded.  
    “Alright, what the hell is going on?” Namjoon stopped the entire line. “Why is Jungkook crying? Who made him cry?”  
    “He-” Jimin started to say, still cursing himself for being so… tactless.  
    Jin held up his hand. “Do we have time, Namjoon?”  
    “We have about five minutes. Fix it now.”  
    Jimin could feel the stares from the rest of the group on them. He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself before explaining. “I caught Jungkook with those last night. He says that they’re wake-up pills.”  
    “Jungkook, are they modafinil?” Namjoon’s voice was suddenly extraordinarily soft and Jimin almost gaped.  
    Jungkook didn’t look up as he nodded. His shoulders still shook silently and Jimin could say that he almost seemed to cry even more.  
    “I couldn’t stop… I had them for a while in the academy and when I got better, I couldn’t stop even then… Or now… ” Jungkook was sobbing, avoiding everyone’s gazes.  
    “Why didn’t you tell us, Jungkook-ah?” Suddenly Jin sounded incredibly sad.  
    “I was scared…! I didn’t want you guys to worry about me or think that there was something really wrong with me…”  
    “Jungkookie, all addictions are harmful. Usually modafinil is not addictive, but for some people it can be dangerous. Unfortunately you got the short straw. But it is not your fault. How could you know?”  
    “I _should_ have!” Jungkook sobbed.  
    “The only thing that you should have done is tell us.” Jin was slightly firmer, but his voice never lost its softness.  
    “I’m sorry, Jin-sunbaenim. I wanted to but-”  
    “You were scared, weren’t you?” Namjoon put his hand on Jungkook’s shoulder.  
    Jungkook nodded. “I’m sorry, everybody…”  
    “Come walk with us, Jungkook.”  
    “Wait, no, I’m sorry…”  
    Jin sighed, also putting his hand on Jungkook’s shoulder. “You’re not in trouble, Kookie. Let’s just walk together.”  
    Jimin watched as both Jin and Namjoon led him to where V was waiting to keep going with a sad look in his eyes.  
    _Am I going crazy?_  
    The five strangers moved past him and the leader gave him a nudge. “Let’s go, man.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello! 
> 
> Sorry this was so late today! :( I was posting my brand new oneshot that I wrote today and yesterday on a whim. ;) 
> 
> You can find it here, if you like Vmin ;P- https://archiveofourown.org/works/12728586
> 
> Thanks for reading guys and see you all on Thursday! <3


	6. Waking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Uh oh...

Namjoon felt a little bewildered. Mind everyone there, he wasn’t mad. He certainly couldn’t understand why Jimin of all people was the one who was pissed, when first of all, it was Jungkook, and second of all, it wasn’t really even Jungkook’s fault. And Namjoon certainly knew well about personal responsibility. But Jungkook was so young and clearly remorseful so how could anyone stay mad at him?   
    “We should be stopping for breakfast in about fifteen minutes…” he muttered to relieve the awkward silence. He smiled to see Jin looking back excitedly at him.   
    It was common knowledge that Jin loved food and eating. He was the one who complained the least about the food, especially the MRE’s. Namjoon sometimes had to make sure Jin didn’t take any extra rations just for the sake of eating.   
    “Are you excited for breakfast, Jungkook?” Namjoon tried to be cheerful to get Jungkook to feel better. His heart sank when the youngest simply shrugged and kept walking while looking down.   
    “I am. Man, am I hungry.” V seemed to catch on to Namjoon’s intentions and the leader was grateful for his wits. “You hungry boys?”  
    The others hooted and Namjoon grinned openly. “We’re stopping in about ten, guys!” He could hear more hooting.   
    “Three cheers for breakfast!” J-Hope broke out.   
    “Hoo-rah! Hoo-rah! Hoo-rah!” The voices of the men were deep and heartening, and for a moment all of Namjoon’s cares dissipated.   
    The only voices Namjoon could not distinguish were Jungkook, or Jimin’s and Namjoon assumed they didn’t respond at all.   
    “Okay, you know what guys? Let’s just stop now, we’re all hungry.”   
    The others cheered. Naturally, not Jimin or Jungkook.   
    With a sigh, Namjoon stopped and set down his pack. What was in store for the day? He had the choice of two MRE’s. After reading the menu on the package, he decided on the Menu Ten. It consisted of a pork sausage patty, strawberry toaster pastry, and a cocoa drink, among other things.   
    “Anyone wanna trade a Menu Twelve for an Eleven?” Suga called out over the others talking.   
    “Here you go.” Namjoon tossed his other package to Suga after seeing that it was in fact, a Menu Twelve. He looked over at Jungkook who was busy getting his heater ready.   
    “You’re fast. Which one do you have?” Namjoon commented, opening his box.   
    “Nine.”   
Namjoon sighed when he heard Jungkook’s voice still weak and sad. He sat down next to him to make sure the youngest listened to him.   
“Jungkook-ah, don’t worry about Jimin. He’s just scared. He’ll get over it.”   
“How can you be so sure? What if we do the mission and it all ends and I never got to say a proper goodbye to him?”   
“You can’t think like that, Jungkook. If you think like that, then I can almost guarantee you that it will happen. If you think, however, and believe that we can and will live, even just another day, then we will.”   
“Namjoon, we don’t have much of a chance, do we?”  
The leader couldn’t help but sigh again, deeper. He wanted to be encouraging, but he knew deep inside that even the smallest chance they had was still small.   
“The chance that _you_ believe we have, maknae, is the chance that we’ve got. Now you tell me: how big is our chance?”   
Jungkook seemed to pause and consider. Namjoon waited carefully, watching the wheels in his head turning.   
“A big chance, Namjoon-sunbaenim.”   
Namjoon smiled widely, standing up and giving him a pat on the shoulder. “That’s the spirit, Jungkook!”   
Jin looked over. “You cheer him up?” He was eager to hear any improvement with the youngest member.   
Namjoon looked at Jungkook, who was back to getting his food ready. Then he winked at Jin. “Enough.”   
    Strawberry toaster pastry had never tasted so good. 

\---

    “Stay close, J-Hope!”   
    Hoseok’s ears pricked up and he ran through the brush, following Namjoon’s voice.   
    It had been hours since breakfast and Hoseok wished it had never ended. Somehow everything had been just right. Early morning, just them and the forest. Warm food, the distant sound of battle, and no Covenant in sight.   
    There was nothing wrong in the universe.   
    “Jungkook! Move it up! The rest of you stay here for a second.”   
    They were at a large entrance made out of some type of stone he could not identify. It was dimly lit and there were patterns on the wall panels. J-Hope assumed that it was the massive weapons cache they needed to capture.   
    A sick feeling settled into Hoseok’s stomach. This place was just way too weird. It was also too empty. He suddenly realized that if the Covenant really cared that much about their weapons, there would be a lot of defense.  
    J-Hope was snapped out of his thoughts as Jungkook called back to them. “Namjoon!”  
    “Alright, let’s go, men!”   
    Hoseok had no idea if the others had the same sense of foreboding as he did. But if they did, then why were they going in? He had no choice but to follow his squad and his leader.   
    At the first corner, they stopped against the wall. Namjoon was the one to lead them on, stopping whenever they faced the unknown. At last, they entered a big empty room. There were two levels and in the middle was a large, transparent, square case and Hoseok didn’t know why these types of things existed.   
    Namjoon turned around and looked at their surroundings, scanning for any sign of danger. Hoseok watched him, half hoping that he would decide to leave. But that wasn’t the case. Instead, Namjoon started to stare at something above the door and J-Hope couldn’t help but turn around to see what it was.   
    Above the door was a strange symbol. It was a ring, and some version of a hexagon with a dash underneath inside the ring.   
    “Jin.”   
    This seemed to catch the attention of the others and Hoseok watched them turn around to look at the thing.   
    “What is it?” V breathed.   
    “No idea. It looks like a… I don’t know.” Suga tried to be smart and knowledgeable and J-Hope couldn’t help but smile.   
    “This could be a clue. We’ll need it for intel when we get back to base.” Namjoon’s tone was firm, ensuring that someone in the squad took a picture or at least captured it in their helmet cam. It didn’t matter who.   
    “It doesn’t look very Covenant-like,” Jin spoke up.   
    “You’re right. We have to figure out what it is.”   
    “Right now might be a good time to ask- are you sure we’re in the right place?” Hoseok turned to Namjoon and expressed his concern.   
    “Yeah. These are the coordinates I got.”   
    “Oh.”   
    There was an awkward pause. “What do you mean, clue?” Taehyung suddenly asked. “What’s all this about a clue?”  
    Jin shrugged. “Just information we want to find out about this place.”  
    Hoseok watched Taehyung narrow his eyes. He too would have been bothered about the lack of communication if he wasn’t so damn scared.   
    “Come on, guys.”   
    Namjoon led them around the large glass cube… thing. Hoseok still hadn’t figured out exactly what it was. But he didn’t have much time to figure it out as their attention was captured by a corpse that was in the way of the entrance of the next room.   
    It was an Elite. J-Hope looked over at Suga, remembering their night watch and how they’d almost died. The dead Elite wore white armor, in contrast to most blue or brown warriors. Lying next to it was a Needler, and J-Hope shuddered at the sight of the weapon so close as they started to investigate the corpse.   
    Needlers were horrible things. Each shot was a large, sharp crystal which became embedded in the victim’s body. The crystal would also detonate and leave shrapnel inside the wound.   
J-Hope had never thought someone could make such a horrible weapon, but there it was, lying there. Sometimes there were things he could hardly believe about the war and yet they existed.   
His gaze went back to the dead Elite and he shuddered again, harder. J-Hope’s stomach turned as he realized that the guts were sticking out of the thing and mashed to bits.   
“Looks like it died a violent death.” Jin’s voice sounded concerned, despite the fact that Elites were the enemy.   
“Maybe it was an accident. Friendly fire or something?” Jungkook spoke up and Hoseok was glad to hear the youngest speak again.   
“That would be the best thing we can come up with.” Namjoon agreed.   
“But friendly fire wouldn’t mess him up that badly,” Suga pointed out and Hoseok couldn’t help but nod with him. “If it was something else, then I think we’re walking into a death-trap.”   
“It’s just a theory. We don’t know what happened, but if we don’t find any more Covenant in the next few minutes, then I guess it’s safe to assume that it’s something else and we should be careful. Let’s keep moving, guys.”   
Hoseok almost wanted to throw up as they moved on, further into the weapon cache. At that point, he was really starting to doubt whether it was a weapons cache at all.   
    They next stopped at a locked door. The lights on it were green which meant it was open, but it wasn’t responding to their presence.   
    “Open it up, V,” Namjoon ordered.   
    “I’ll try, but it looks like the Covenant tried pretty hard to lock it down,” V said reluctantly.   
    “Just do it, Tae.”   
    “Yes, sir.”   
    J-Hope was just about ready to faint. Why were they doing this? Why didn’t Namjoon understand that this was going to be their death?   
    He caught Suga’s gaze and nodded, gripping his rifle tightly. This was it. The last moment. Suga nodded back to him and he wanted to smile, but there was no sort of happiness left in him. There was only fear and apprehension.   
    Finally the door opened after V was able to hack it. Jungkook was the first to go in, scanning the surroundings. It was another large empty room, but instead of a glass case, there was a sort of platform in the middle.   
    The room seemed to be clear so they followed him, heading left around the platform.   
    “I got a bad feeling about this,” J-Hope vocalized.   
    “You’ve always got a bad feeling about something,” Jungkook returned, and Hoseok gave him a nudge.   
    Suddenly Hoseok’s ears picked up on some shuffling coming from the door on the left side of the room.   
    “Wait, what’s that?” Jimin was the one who asked before J-Hope could say anything. He didn’t even have time to notice how Jimin finally spoke again. He could only feel chills running up and down his back as the shuffling continued.   
    Hoseok could barely breathe as the door on the left side of the room suddenly broke open. Out of it tumbled a mound of small creatures that he couldn’t exactly identify.  
    He squinted to take a closer look. They looked rather harmless, standing at about the height of a medium sized dog. Their skin was a repulsive, pale green and they moved about on tentacles.   
    But what gave Hoseok the creeps were their faces. They had no recognizable faces. Just a group of three feelers sticking out of the front.   
    He watched with a detached sort of interest as they swarmed around the squad and approached them. Yet before he could even raise a hand, the first one attacked.   
    Everything started moving so slowly. Shots went off at a snail’s pace and Hoseok only blinked at the sight of one of those... things jumping onto one of the young guys from the other group.   
    There were two screams. One of pain, and another two of horror. Looking around, J-Hope saw that one of the screams of horror came from the man’s brother, who Hoseok didn’t know. The other one came from V, and J-Hope barely remembered his teammate bonding with the group of five.   
    It wasn’t until the guy started morphing into what J-Hope could only describe as an abomination, that he heard the order from Namjoon to retreat. There were more shots and he watched the thing collapse from the bullets while there was more screaming.   
    The attacks from the other small creatures were relentless. They had to run as though the building were on fire.  
    Suddenly, J-Hope understood what had happened to the dead Elite they had found earlier.   
    He almost stopped running to retch in disgust, but he didn’t get a chance as Suga pulled him along, out into the forest.   
    Hoseok was expecting to die. But he wasn’t expecting to become what that Marine turned into.   
    He briefly recalled the sight of the newly formed... parasite-ridden… thing.   
    The color of the skin matched that of the little ‘spiders’ that they first encountered. Not only that, but it had the same feelers protruding from where the neck should have been. The head of the man was snapped back, still somehow attached because of the new disgusting membrane-like tissue which had somehow covered him entirely. The left arm was no longer an arm, but had instead turned into a bunch of long, deadly tentacles. However, the right arm was still intact and able to use the assault rifle.   
    Hoseok shuddered as he recalled the thing starting to run towards them. There were bullets flying everywhere. Bullets flying at them, the thing, the spidery-creatures. Hoseok couldn’t remember the last time they were so disorganized.   
    But his attention snapped back to the forest. They seemed to be clear for the moment. They all caught their breath, still quiet and puzzled. There was only the sound of soft sobbing and distant battle. J-Hope barely registered the three strangers and V kneeling down to comfort the brother who had survived.   
    “What the hell were those things?” Suga was the first one to speak up, still panting.   
    “I have no idea, but whatever they were, they took Ben,” the leader of the other group spoke up. “We need to figure out what they are and find out how to get rid of them.”   
    Namjoon shook his head. “No. You saw how easily they got him. We can’t risk that, being turned into one of those monsters.”   
    “Our mission was to capture the weapons cache. We’re not leaving without doing the mission.”  
    “I know! But I’m not risking my men to _that_!” Namjoon countered.   
    “Very well, then, go back on the UNSC’s orders. Come on, men.”   
    The remaining three of the squad gasped.   
    “I can’t go back-” the brother sobbed.   
    “That’s an order.”   
    The others and V helped him up. The two others shook hands with V and started following their leader back towards the weapons cache.   
J-Hope only watched as one of them looked back at Taehyung like a kicked dog.   
“Goodbye, Sanchez.” V said sadly. Jin placed a hand on his shoulder.   
“See you on the flip side, soldier.”  
    There was some silence as Namjoon tried to figure out what to do. J-Hope looked at Suga whose expression was hard and determined. He sighed when Suga didn’t look back at him. He couldn’t blame him. They were all scared and that was simply Suga’s way of dealing with it.   
    Finally Namjoon sighed. “We’re gonna head to the rendezvous and camp out while we wait for a Pelican.”  
    “That’s it, then? We’re not doing the mission?” Suga asked.   
    “No. We don’t have enough firepower or intel on how to beat these things,” Namjoon answered matter-of-factly.   
    “We can take them! We just have to try.”   
    “I’m not risking this.”   
    “You were ready to die at the Covenant’s hands! Why should this be any different?”  
    “Because those things don’t kill you! They take you and they turn you into a fighting abomination! I’m not gonna play into their hands! Especially with _your_ lives!” Namjoon finally exploded.   
    Then there was silence.   
    Namjoon sighed again. “You guys are the only family I’ve got. My parents are far away, my sister is far away, you guys are the closest and the ones I trust the most. And there will be hell before I let those… _things_ take _any_ of you!”   
    Namjoon’s face was flushed with anger and emotion and J-Hope swore he had never seen him this riled up. Not even while at the Academy.   
    Jungkook finally nodded after some time. “If this is our big chance, then I’ll take it,” he said quietly.   
    This seemed to pacify a still impassioned Namjoon who smiled half-heartedly.   
    “Let’s go guys.”   
    They started jogging as to stay ahead of the creatures and get to the rendezvous as soon as possible so they could get to the station again.   
    As J-Hope followed, he couldn’t help but think about Namjoon’s emotional outburst. Having known him the longest, he knew how practical Namjoon was with his emotions and dealing with difficult circumstances. This was a side of him that J-Hope wasn’t used to seeing. But he was starting to realize that he didn’t really mind that Namjoon expressed his emotions. In fact, it was probably a very long time coming.   
    J-Hope saw how much pressure Namjoon was under as sergeant and thus protector of the team. He really couldn’t get disturbed at the amount of emotions Namjoon was probably feeling, especially at that moment of uncertainty and confusion.   
    Deep in his thoughts, he didn’t even notice that they weren’t singing the running cadence at all. He looked around at the others. They all seemed just as lost in thoughts as he was. Their faces were focused and at the same time, spaced out.   
    J-Hope sighed as he jogged along.   
    At that moment, a career in music was very appealing to him. He had almost pursued it. But his parents insisted he become a soldier to uphold their family name.   
    The very next moment, he hated his life. 

\---

    Kim Taehyung missed the other guys. He missed Sanchez, especially. He knew that none of them were going to make it.   
    Suddenly he despised himself. Why, oh why, had he not spoken up? Maybe they weren’t going to survive anything after all, but as Jungkook said, this was their chance.   
    Why didn’t Taehyung make them take that chance?  
    The closest thing he could think of was cowardice. He was afraid of speaking out against the leader. Out against his leader, too.   
    But he had faced so many things! Why were Namjoon and Mavuto so terrifying? Because… going against their orders was like going against all of the UNSC itself.   
    Wait… then why was Namjoon ignoring the mission? Why weren’t they out there fighting and dying? V knew they were over this already, but he had to wonder.   
    What was so important that they had to escape?  
    Suddenly his mind went back to that night at the station, when he heard Namjoon and Jin whispering.   
    Was it Jin? Taehyung stretched his memory to see if he could find any sort of clue as to the reason why they were escaping. Was it just Namjoon’s way of dealing with it?  
    He almost wanted to growl in frustration. It was enough that they were stuck on a strange planet… thing… and were being chased to the death by Covenant and strange new deadly creatures, but to have to try to figure out why things were like that in their own small ranks was just too much. He wanted to stop and try to figure everything out on paper, but well, he signed up for crap like this.  
    But wait, V had signed on to fight the Covenant. Not weird goopy alien things that were zombies. Not to mention dealing with the strange dynamics in the squad- he didn’t need or want to deal with those either.   
    V didn’t often think too much about what the group was up to, but this was just too much. Jungkook and Jimin weren’t speaking to each other, and Namjoon and Jin seemed to know something that he didn’t. Not to mention J-Hope’s sudden lack of emotion… again. Suga was the only one who seemed to be sane, apart from himself.   
    Or maybe not. Suga was, after all apparently ready to take on zombie creatures head-on.   
    No, V was indeed alone in his apparent sanity.   
    But that didn’t really matter. They were running for their lives. Again. And this time V wasn’t sure if they even had real safety to get to. Those things were fierce, terrifying, and from what he had seen, really determined to catch them.   
    V almost crashed into Jimin as Namjoon ordered them to stop for a break. The elder looked at him and blinked.   
    “Sorry, hyung. I was lost in my own thoughts. Won’t happen again.”   
    Taehyung wasn’t wrong. Not in the least.   
    Because not one second after he apologized, a plasma shot flew past his head.   
    And that was the moment all hell broke loose.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo! We actually had action this chapter! Let me know what you think will happen! I think we will wrap up pretty soon so please keep a look out ;)
> 
> Thank you for reading! :)
> 
> -SmolNerd

**Author's Note:**

> Hey everyone! 
> 
> Thank your for reading my Camp NaNo odyssey of tears and pain!
> 
> As you can see, this is the first Halo BTS crossover in existence so I don't really know how much interest it will receive. Regardless, I will continue to upload chapters whether anyone ends up liking them or not. 
> 
> Speaking of uploads, they will happen every Tuesday and Thursday at 12pm EST. I will be very strict on myself so hopefully there is no consistency problems
> 
> Anyways, I am a big fan of Halo, but I am in no way a canon expert. I had to do a lot of research into the Halo Universe while writing this and I'm pretty sure I got a whole bunch of things wrong in terms of the story and also combat scenarios and military protocol and setting. So please forgive the discrepancies if you see any. 
> 
> Aside from that, I hope you enjoy and see you soon!
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> -SmolNerd


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